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THE BIBLE MESSAGE 

FOR 

MODERN MANHOOD 



THE BIBLE MESSAGE 

FOR 

MODERN MANHOOD 



BY 

CRAIG 5. THOM5, Ph. D. 

n 



PHILADELPHIA 

THE GRIFFITH & ROWLAND PRESS 

1912 



T^5 



Copyright 1912 by 
A. J. ROWLAND. Secretary 

Published December, 1912 



©CI.A330457 



TO 

m^ mite 

WHOSE FELLOWSHIP OF THOUGHT 

HAS GIVEN UNCEASING JOY AND 

WHOSE DEVOTION TO THE BEST IN 

LIFE HAS BEEN A CONSTANT 

INSPIRATION 



PREFACE 



There are two different things, as Doctor 
Paulsen says, about a page of print: First, 
By what processes did it come to be? and 
secondly, What does it mean ? This volume 
passes as briefly as possible over the first 
question and seeks an answer to the second. 
The answer it seeks, however, is not detailed 
nor exhaustive, but rather the central one. 
The author's aim, in discussing each Bible 
narrative treated, has been to point out the 
theme which lies in it as an organizing 
principle, and which has vital significance 
for every age. 

The aim throughout has been, not to write 
about the Bible, nor to discuss critical ques- 
tions, but rather, by interpreting some of 
the principal narratives in the light of the 
best conservative scholarship of our day, to 
give the word of God itself a firmer grip 
upon every mind and a deeper hold upon 
every heart. The author seeks, not to speak 
for the word of God, but to set forth that 



pretace 

word in such light that it shall speak for 
itself. 

The book is sent forth with the hope that, 
amid the shifting thought incident to times 
of critical study, it may help young men es- 
pecially to hold fast to the fundamental 
teachings of God's Revealed Word. 

It has been found impracticable to give 
credit for suggestions received from many 
books by specific references to the works. 
A bibliography is therefore appended, in 
which are set down a few of the volumes 
that have been found helpful. 

C S T 

April X, 1912. ^" *^* 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PART I 

THE TRAINING OF GOD's PEOPLE 
Chapter Page 

I. The Narrative of Creation 13 

II. The Temptation of Adam and 

Eve 29 

III. Cain and Abel 49 

IV. The Great Flood 71 

V. Abraham, the Man who Obeyed 

God 89 

VI. Jacob, the Man who Conquered 

by Being Conquered 109 

VII. Joseph, the God-accompanied 

Man 127 

VIII. The Redemption of Israel from 

Egypt 145 

IX. The Beginning of the Conquest 

of Canaan 169 



^able ot Contents 



PART II 



THE MISSION OF GOD S PEOPLE 
Chapter Page 

X. The Book of Jonah 189 

XL The Work of the Prophets 209 

XII. The Nature of Messianic 

Prophecy 231 

XIII. Christ the FulfiUer of Prophecy. 253 

XIV. The Significance of Jesus Christ 

for the i\Iodern Man 265 



PART I 

THE TRAINING OF GOD'S 
PEOPLE 



Zhc Iftarrative of Creatton 



<9ene0i0, tbe first and Second Cbapters 



IN the present condition of biblical knowl- 
edge it is of the utmost importance 
for every one to maintain a right mental at- 
titude toward reverent Christian scholar- 
ship. Many good people, confusing devout- 
ness with conservatism, are prejudiced 
against warranted conclusions of biblical 
investigation ; while other equally good peo- 
ple accept all too readily every new specula- 
tion. Either of these mental attitudes may 
result from sheer prejudice or pride of 
opinion and may be accompanied with very 
superficial knowledge of the matters under 
investigation. 

It hardly need be said that there are 
earlier and later conceptions of the Old 
Testament Scriptures. The earlier con- 
ceptions obtained before modern scholar- 
ship was born, while the later ones are the 
product of that scholarship. Those who 
hold to the earlier views are neither more 
nor less devout and consecrated than those 

15 



Zbc ^Btble fncddaae for tlloDetn Olanbood 

who hold to the later ones ; but between the 
two views young people especially feel 
themselves in a transitional, or at least an 
uncertain, state of mind with reference 
to the Old Testament literature. If one 
were to ask, " What are the old views ? " 
and, " What are the new views ? " many 
could not tell ; and even among those better 
informed different answers would be given. 
The conscious state of the average man 
with reference to the whole matter is that 
of confusion. Surely the net result of Old 
Testament scholarship ought to be, and 
doubtless will ultimately be, to lead men 
to emphasize the things that are vital to 
spiritual life and to send to the background 
of religious thought and emphasis things 
unedifying to that life. 

In this first chapter we are to consider 
the story of creation, found in the first 
two chapters of Genesis. The subject may 
be simplified by considering it, first, as to 
the facts and, secondly, as to the teaching. 

I. As to the Facts 

(i) Who was the author of the narra- 
tive? When was the narrative written? 
What was the nationality of the author? 

i6 



tlbe IFlatrative ot Creation 

Was he prophet, priest, sage, or scientist? 
What is the nature of the writing — ^his- 
tory, legend, allegory, parable, prose, or 
poetry ? 

It is important to observe that regarding 
these questions the narrative itself is ut- 
terly silent. Had answers to them been 
vital to the message which the narrative 
contains, such answers certainly would 
have been made clear. But since the narra- 
tive ignores these questions, surely it is 
proper for us at least to put them to one 
side. Let us deliver them over to the 
scholars — the critics, archeologists, Assyri- 
ologists, Egyptologists; to those who love 
to excavate buried cities, dig up tablets and 
monuments, decipher hieroglyphics, and to 
any others who are able to help in the 
work. Let us ask such men to do their 
best, and return to us with their report. 
We shall be interested in whatever they 
may discover, but not shaken by it, since 
it cannot annul any spiritual teaching of 
the word. 

Surely it is folly from the religious point 
of view to contend seriously as to whether 
any writing of the Scriptures is history, 
tradition, legend, allegory, parable, prose, 

B 17 



tlbc 3iblc (JtlcBBnQc for tllodetn CilanbooD 

or poetry ; for by all of these means we find 
God speaking to men. Read the account 
of the rise and fall of David's kingdom, 
the narrative of the Babylonian captivity, 
the lives of Christ and of Paul. You are 
reading history and biography. Turn to 
the Psalms and the poems of the great 
prophets, and you find God speaking to men 
through poetry. Listen to Nathan's re- 
buke of David, where he speaks of the 
man's little ewe lamb (2 Sam. 12: 1-6), and 
to the story of the speaking trees (Judg. 
9: 7-10), and you find God's messages made 
plain in allegory. Go to the teachings of 
Christ and you find the very heart of the 
gospel in parables. 

Shall it be then a matter of acrimonious 
debate whether this story of creation is 
this or that kind of literature? We con- 
fess, of course, a scholarly interest in what 
the investigators bring to our notice, but 
are religiously indifferent to it, since it 
cannot invalidate the spiritual teaching, 
which Jehovah by his word is revealing to 
the souls of men. Very likely it may con- 
firm the literal truth of the teaching. 

(2) Many scholars affirm that in these 
first two chapters of Genesis there are two 

18 



^be IRarcative ot Creation 

distinct narratives woven together. This 
claim need not alarm or disturb us, nor are 
we supremely concerned to show whether it 
is true or false. The essence of the narra- 
tive is left us in either case. The scholars 
tell us that there is an earHer narrative of 
creation written by a prophet, or possibly 
a school of prophets; and a later one 
written by a priest, or possibly a school of 
priests. They tell us also that there is an 
earlier and a later Babylonian narrative 
of creation, as well as a Persian narrative; 
and that the clay tablets on which these 
narratives are written have been dug up 
from buried cities. They tell us further 
that there are traditions of creation which 
have been handed down in many nations. 
These facts none can question. We have 
no reason to doubt them, nor do we desire 
to doubt them. 

Is this biblical story of creation then a 
composite narrative? And did the writer 
have earlier traditions and stories before 
him upon which he drew? I am not anx- 
ious about such questions, because they 
are matters without vital significance for 
God's message. It is exceedingly probable 
that the writer did have earlier materials 

19 



Ube Mblc message for flloOem ffilanbooD 

before him ; for, as far as we know, God's 
method in teaching men has always been 
to require them to use the materials which 
they had at hand. The staff that is already 
in the hand of Moses he must use in de- 
livering Israel. The few loaves and fishes 
the disciples must use in feeding the multi- 
tude. The lives of Christ that " many have 
taken in hand to write," Luke draws upon 
in writing his Gospel. It is not God's way 
to shoot messages like lightning from clear 
sky when men have materials at hand by 
which they may be conveyed. But what I 
seek to make plain is that questions of 
method in revelation are of minor impor- 
tance as bearing upon the spiritual teaching. 

2. As to the Teaching 

Let us now go into the narrative itself, 
seeking an answer to the one question of 
chief importance, viz.. What message does 
this narrative bring from God to the human 
heart ? 

( I ) God created the world. In this nar- 
rative the ideas of God and the world are 
the primitive ideas of ancient civilization. 
God is thought of as being in the form of 
man. He acts like a man, thinks like a 

20 



Zhc Barcativc ot Ctcatlon 

man, speaks like a man. The earth is con- 
ceived as being flat, with a great dome or 
firmament above it. Beneath the flat earth 
there is the "great deep," and above the 
dome also there is water. "Windows of 
heaven " admit water to the earth from 
above, and " fountains of the great deep " 
answer a like purpose for the waters be- 
low. The conceptions of God and the world 
are those of the age, not those of modern 
science. Scientific conceptions have no 
place nor mission here. Had they been 
put into the narrative, they would have 
been unintelligible until within the last hun- 
dred years. Indeed, scientific terms are 
even now practically valueless as means of 
conveying spiritual truth. We say that God 
is cause or force or law, all of which is 
true enough, but what do we get out of 
such terms for our spiritual life? Even in 
this scientific age it is not until God is 
thought of in terms of personality that we 
are helped spiritually by the knowledge of 
him. It is when Christ bids us pray, " Our 
Father," that our souls grip a divine reality. 
It is when the Saviour speaks to us the 
parable of the Prodigal Son that we feel 
a tugging at our heart-strings. We get 

21 



^be Mblc tnceeaQC tor flloOern fllanbooD 

nearest to God by conceiving him to be an 
enlarged human personaHty — anthropo- 
morphism, as the theologians call it — not in 
terms of the chemical laboratory or of 
physics or in the discoveries of zoolog}^ or 
geology. The matchless story of creation 
in Genesis, told for the spiritual help of 
man, brings God nearer to the mind and 
heart than any scientific treatise could pos- 
sibly do. What is its message? Jeho- 
vah, not idols, created the world. The 
world did not come by chance. It did not 
produce or create itself. And it was created 
for good. This is the first message of the 
narrative. Surely it could not be set forth 
more clearly nor uttered with greater 
majesty and power. 

(2) Jehovah created man. All the con- 
ceptions here are very simple. An old 
Babylonian poem tells of a goddess crea- 
ting a man, Eabani, from a bit of clay. He 
was clad only in the long hair which covered 
his body. He ate and drank and sported 
with the animals. To lure him from his 
strange companionship a beautiful woman 
was sent, and by her charms she wooed him 
from his barbarous life.^ How primitive 

^ Kent, " Heroes and Crises of Early Hebrew History," 
P- 37- 

22 



I 



^be Vlarcatfve of Cceation 

and yet how poetic and beautiful these con- 
ceptions are! 

Very similar are the conceptions in the 
bibHcal narrative. God molds from dust 
the form of a man, but there is no life. 
The form lies motionless and inert. Then, 
bending over the form, God breathes into it 
the breath of life, and it becomes a living 
soul. There is no modern science here. 
The conceptions are wholly primitive. And, 
as in case of the creation of the world, 
had they not been so the narrative would 
have been useless until very recent times, 
and not of much service then. 

The lesson which the story holds is that 
" God breathed into man the breath of life." 
The form of the story is comparatively 
insignificant. And yet, pedagogically, this 
Genesis story has been the best in every 
age; and it is the very best to-day. As a 
quick and effective instrument of spiritual 
impression, assurance, and conviction, all 
the scientific knowledge that we possess is 
impotent beside it. Its clear-cut lessons 
are that man is God-inspirited ; he is created 
in the divine image; the divine life is in 
him. This is the deepest and sublimest 
fact of our nature. This great truth throbs 

23 



ZTbe 3iSil>le Vdcee^Qc for filoDecn manbood 

in every soul, becomes articulate in every 
prayer, impresses us anew beside every 
open grave, and is the very heart of the 
message of Christ to man, viz., that man 
by creation is a son of God. 

(3) Jehovah created woman. The narra- 
tive represents God as first searching among 
the animals to find a helpmeet for man 
and as failing in the search. Then, upon 
Adam there falls a deep sleep, the rib (if 
that is what the word means) is taken 
from his side, and the wound is closed. 
From the rib and flesh taken the woman is 
formed. She is then brought to the man, 
who recognizes her kinship to himself, ac- 
cepts her as his mate, and lives with her as 
his wife and helpmeet. 

It is a beautiful story, primitive and 
oriental in every conception, simple in de- 
tail, yet laden with spiritual import. Should 
one expect science here ? Even the sugges- 
tion seems sacrilege. Where in all the 
world can one find another story consisting 
of so few words that is such a matchless 
vehicle of thought and the bearer of such 
fundamental conceptions of the sexes, that 
woman is of the same flesh and blood as 
man; that the breath of God is in her as 

24 



Zbc flanatlve ot Creation 

in him; and that she is to him cx)mpanion 
and helpmeet ? 

He who sees clearly the vital truths of 
this great narrative and realizes what a 
teacher it has been to mankind does not 
wonder at the high place the Hebrews gave 
to their women. He does not wonder that, 
under the influence of the Bible, the Greeks 
ceased to discuss whether woman had a 
soul. He does not wonder that with the 
progress of the centuries the home has 
been purified until woman's good name is 
held sacred by every man of honor. To 
him who knows the sad history of woman 
in heathen lands the Genesis story of 
creation is to her a decree of emancipation 
issued from the throne of the Eternal. 

(4) Jehovah provides. Having created 
the man and the woman, God plants a gar- 
den eastward in Eden; i. e., the Creator 
provides for the comfort and enjoyment of 
his creatures. 

Was this Garden of Eden a real garden? 
If so, where was it located? What were its 
fruits? Simply to ask such questions is 
to make plain how puerile and ridiculous 
they are in the face of a narrative so 
beautiful in conception, and so abundantly 

25 



i^bc Mblc (UlcBBngc for fHoDern filanboo& 

reassuring for man's spiritual life. Geogra- 
phy and horticulture have no place here. The 
message is one of God's care and provision 
for those whom he has created. At this 
point the narrative is the forerunner of 
Christ's teaching that the God who cares 
for the lily and the sparrows cares with 
greater solicitude for man. 

But the inspired writer does not stop 
when he has made clear God's provision 
for man's body. His eye is upon the spir- 
itual part of man, that part which he has 
carefully shown to be inbreathed by God. 
In the garden Jehovah plants a tree of the 
knowledge of good and evil, and warns the 
created pair not to eat of the fruit of it 
lest they die. 

In ancient literature one may trace many 
analogies of the tree of life and of the tree 
of the knowledge of good and evil. A 
Babylonian hero, after long search, finds a 
plant called, " The restoration of old age to 
youth," but it is snatched away from him 
by a serpent, so that he fails of immortality. 
Another legend tells of a fisherman who 
gained entrance to the abode of the gods, 
where he was given the " food of life," 
and by eating this food endless life was 

26 



Zbc IRatcativc of Ctcation 

secured. Trees were frequently thought to 
be media of revelation. God appears to 
Moses in the burning bush. During the 
period of the Judges there was a famous 
diviner's tree near Shechem. (Judg. 9:37.) 
In ancient Greece oaks and laurels were 
consulted by kings and philosophers. The 
Arabs to-day believe that the box-thorn 
sometimes utters prophetic words. The 
ideas of trees of life and of revelation were 
common conceptions among the ancients.^ 

In the light of such facts how shall we 
interpret this narrative of creation? Shall 
we inquire whether there was a real gar- 
den? Whether God actually planted trees? 
And what was the nature of their fruit? 
To do so is to become the victims of nar- 
row literalism. Every man lives daily in a 
whole orchard of trees of the knowledge of 
good and evil and, contrary to the command 
of God in his soul, he is constantly tempted 
to partake of their fruit. 

From this simple but truth-laden story, 
which on its face shows that it was written 
by some great prophet of God under the 
tuition of the Divine Spirit (and why not by 

2 See Kent, " Heroes and Crises of Early Hebrew His- 
tory," pp. 36, 37. 

27 



XLbc Miblc fileegaae tot fDotJCcn manbooD 

Moses?), we should catch the broad sweep 
of the eternal facts in which our lives are 
grounded: That man is God-created; that 
man and woman, because they are of the 
same flesh and blood, and made the one for 
the other, should hold each other in sacred 
honor; that God cares for man and makes 
provisions both for his bodily necessities and 
for his spiritual needs. These are primal 
truths that lie at the foundation both of 
our spiritual knowledge and our soul-cul- 
ture. 



28 



Ill 

^be c;emptatton of H&am anb £ve 



Ocncele, tbe Zbivt Chapter 



II 



J. The Form of the Narrative 

THE third chapter of Genesis, which 
narrates the temptation of Adam and 
Eve, is one of the most remarkable chap- 
ters in the Bible; remarkable in charm of 
literary form, in grasp of fundamental 
truth, in comprehensive understanding of 
human nature, and in exhaustive treatment 
of the problem of temptation. The writer 
sees human life to its depths and speaks for 
eternity. 

(i) Regarding the form of the narrative, 
one should not be dogmatic. Some are in- 
clined to say in haste : " If this narrative is 
not what I have believed it to be from 
childhood, I cannot hold to its inspiration." 
Such an attitude is unreasonably and arro- 
gantly dogmatic. It does not consider suf- 
ficiently the difficulties which many have 
in retaining the beliefs of their childhood. 
It often presumes to decide scholarly ques- 

31 



Zbc JSSible aiceenQc tot Cllodetn manboob 

tions without the necessary scholarship and 
without having given the subject that study 
which guarantees competent judgment. In 
the present condition of bibhcal scholarship 
one's mind should be as open and flexible 
as possible regarding the literary form of 
such a narrative, in order that one's heart 
may be fully receptive of its spiritual mes- 
sage. 

For centuries scholars regarded this nar- 
rative as history, but many have now come 
to a different and, as they believe, to a better 
view. The narrative itself bristles with 
the experiences of every man, and is 
brimming with elements of life that are 
universal, 

(2) Before inquiring what the narrative 
teaches, we should notice a few orien- 
talisms. 

By the ancients the serpent was regarded 
as typical of wisdom and subtlety. Our 
Lord said : " Be ye therefore wise as ser- 
pents, and harmless as doves" (Matt. 10: 
16). On account of its lurking nature, sud- 
den attack, and poisonous bite, the serpent 
was frequently employed to symbolize the 
enemy of man, as when John in the Revela- 
tion speaks of " the old serpent, he that is 

32 



ZDc (Temptation of aoam anO J6ve 

called the Devil" (Rev. 12:9). It is 
natural and fitting, therefore, that from all 
the animals the serpent should be selected 
as the tempter of our first parents. 

All suffering and misfortune was an- 
ciently regarded as the consequence of sin. 
This popular conviction is insisted upon by 
the three friends in the book of Job. It 
wa§ held by our Lord's disciples who, on 
one occasion, asked the Master : " Who 
sinned, this man, or his parents, that he 
should be born blind?" (John 9:2.); to 
which our Lord replied : " Neither did this 
man sin, nor his parents ; but that the works 
of God should be made manifest in him," 
thus correcting a conception which had pre- 
vailed for centuries. In the narrative of 
the temptation the pains of childbirth, the 
necessity of earning a livelihood by hard 
toil, and the serpent doomed to a prostrate 
form, are all attributed to sin. 

(3) The closest parallel to this narrative 
in ancient literature is the story of a man 
and woman who were influenced by an 
evil spirit to disobey the Creator. By 
cutting down trees and killing animals, 
contrary to the will of God, they lost their 
innocence. 

c 33 



^be :fl6ib(e tHesdade tot moDcrn fllanbooD 

2. The Teaching of the Narrative 

A careful examination of the story of the 
temptation reveals the fact that the pro- 
phetic writer has a remarkably comprehen- 
sive grasp of the whole problem involved. 

(i) Man comes from the hand of his 
Creator innocent. Adam and Eve are man 
and woman grown, and yet they are chil- 
dren. They manifest all the unconscious 
innocence of children three or four years of 
age. In this particular the writer is not deal- 
ing with a fanciful state, but with an actual 
condition through which all men and women 
pass as they grow from the cradle to ma- 
turity. In the cities of the Orient to-day 
one may see children unclothed, playing 
together in unconscious innocence. The 
writer, in dealing with the problem of temp- 
tation, naturally and properly goes back 
beyond all conscious temptation to that con- 
dition of innocence in which little children 
play in each other's presence naked and 
without shame. Thus in a few sentences 
is laid the foundation for the whole history 
of temptation from its first dim dawning to 
its ultimate consequences. 

(2) Of all the trees in the garden, the 

34 



I 



^be ZTcmptation of BOam anD Bve 

pair is forbidden only one. The words 
which the serpent utters are significant: 
" Hath God really said, ' Ye shall not eat 
of any tree of the garden '? " That is, has 
God denied you an)rthing whatsoever ? The 
writer of the narrative makes a contrast 
between the many trees of which they 
may eat and the one of which they may 
not eat, a contrast which is absolutely true 
to life. Life's orchard is full of trees. And 
for every one that is denied us there are 
a hundred whose fruit we may enjoy. For 
every one that holds a temptation there are 
a hundred which have no suggestion of 
sin. To-morrow we go forth to our work; 
the day is spent in strenuous activity; we 
return weary, but with consciousness of 
achievement; it has been a good day. As 
we review its experiences we can recall 
only one or two points, and often none at 
all, at which we were tempted to sin. Or 
we throw off the cares of work and go for a 
day's pleasure. The morning hails us with 
delight; the waxing hours crown our day 
with blessing; every friend increases our 
satisfaction. At evening when we review 
the day's experiences we find that for every 
temptation to sin there have been a hundred 

35 



^be Mblc nQeeeage tor moDern HQanbooD 

innocent delights and as many refreshing 
joys. The proportions of this narrative of 
man's first temptation are true to Hfe. Only 
occasionally, and in comparatively few rela- 
tions of life, are we severely tempted; while 
in the great majority of our points of con- 
tact with the world we know nothing what- 
ever of temptation. Of the whole garden, 
with the exception of an occasional tree, 
we may freely eat. 

(3) The actual forces of which we are 
conscious in temptation are clearly por- 
trayed in this narrative. Neither in accu- 
racy of delineation nor in vividness of por- 
trayal can they be improved. On one side 
is God, who earnestly seeks man's good. 
On the other side is the serpent, guileful, 
argumentative, unscrupulous. And between 
these two stand the childlike pair, wonder- 
ing, curious, and willing to be persuaded. 
Where shall one find a more accurate char- 
acterization of the opposing forces which 
he feels tugging at his soul in moments of 
temptation? And where shall one find 
drawn with greater precision his own men- 
tal and moral attitudes? It is evident that 
the inspired writer is not only master of 
his problem, but master also of the art of 

36 



Zbc c;emptation of Bdam anD l£vc 

setting forth that problem so as to bring 
conviction home to every man. Nowhere 
else in the Bible, unless it be in the temp- 
tation of our Lord in the wilderness, are 
the forces operative in temptation so clearly 
portrayed and man's duty when tempted so 
plainly indicated. 

(4) As in life, so in this narrative, the 
tempter casts discredit upon the sincerity 
and integrity of God. He says : " For God 
doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, 
then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall 
be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 
3:5). When one stops to consider the 
matter, he knows that God desires his good. 
But sin is never reasonable. Notwith- 
standing the assertions of reason, when we 
are tempted there is in our hearts rebellion 
against God, which carries with it the sus- 
picion that God is not quite sincere, and 
that he is endeavoring to withhold from 
us something that we may legitimately en- 
joy. Every temptation holds a subtle in- 
timation that God at heart is not for us, but 
against us. Sin is the logical sequence of 
skepticism. Any justification of sin brands 
God as a deceiver who seeks to take advan- 
tage of one by withholding from him some 

37 



^be Bible flleaaade for filoDern Cilanbood 

good. Thus this narrative expresses in 
vivid fashion what lies latent and unad- 
mitted in the heart of every sinning per- 
son, viz., that what God says is not true, 
and what God requires is not warranted 
by facts. 

(5) The same considerations which led 
Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit have 
always led men into sin. The text states 
them as follows : " And when the woman 
saw that the tree was (a) good for food, 
and (b) that it was a delight to the eyes, 
and (c) that the tree was to be desired to 
make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof 
and did eat" (Gen. 3:6). As to whether 
the tree was attractive to the sight, the 
woman was competent to judge; but as to 
whether it was good for food or would 
make her wise, she was wholly incompetent 
to judge. These supposed facts, which she 
assumed to be true on the authority of her 
tempter, could be known only by experi- 
ence. They were wholly untrue, as the 
sequel shows. 

But what an accurate representation is 
here of life as we know it! There is a 
glamour about temptation. To inexperi- 
enced eyes it has a subtle attractiveness. 

38 



I 



Zbc tremptatton ot BDam atto l£vc 

And does not the tempter always argue that 
the thing forbidden is not so bad after all, 
indeed is really good for us, and that we 
need the wisdom that comes from the ex- 
perience? Every one who has done per- 
sonal work in winning men to Christ has 
heard the serpent's arguments times with- 
out number. Take, for example, the young 
man who is tempted to drink. The good 
fellowship, the jollity, the secret under- 
standings which other young men have 
among themselves, are pleasant to his eyes. 
Already the tempter is saying to him that 
a social glass does not harm any one, that 
many great men have been drinking men, 
that a glass at the right time is really a good 
thing and puts one at his best ; in the words 
of the narrative, that the apple is "good 
for food." The youth persuades himself 
also that every young man must " sow his 
wild oats," and that from doing so there 
comes a necessary experience and a knowl- 
edge of the world; in the words of the 
narrative again, that the apple is "to be 
desired to make one wise." In all tempta- 
tion the processes are practically the same, 
and the prophetic writer is laying bare the 
most subtle wiles of the Evil One. 

39 



Zbc MUc OlcssaQC tor flloDcrn fnanboo& 

(6) After Adam and Eve have sinned 
they hide from God, who walks in the 
garden, desirous of talking with them as a 
father would talk with his children. This 
attitude of hiding from God after sinning 
is so familiar to every one's experience that 
it scarcely requires comment. Any man 
who was once accustomed to pray, but has 
ceased to do so, needs no one to tell him 
that he ceased to pray on account of his 
sins. And while his reason tells him that 
it is useless to hide from the all-seeing God, 
in his secret soul he does hide, and he 
cannot be at ease nor feel at home when 
God draws near. Sin against either God or 
man makes us in very truth hide away from 
the presence of those against whom we sin. 
This fact the narrative sets forth in match- 
less manner. 

(7) When Jehovah called the guilty pair 
to account Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed 
the serpent, and the serpent made no reply. 
This portion of the narrative needs to be 
rescued from that silly facetiousness which 
has long obscured its deeper meaning. We 
need to be done with saying that " Adam- 
like, man always blames the woman." 
There is no question of sex here. The 

40 



^be n:emptation ot Zldam and iBvc 

teaching would be unchanged if Adam had 
tempted Eve. The facts in the narrative 
are just as they are in hfe. When one sins 
he hastens to shift the responsibihty and to 
blame another for his fault. Occasionally 
a brave person with his lips says, " I take 
all the blame." But in his secret soul he 
does not take all the blame. The son be- 
lieves that his father was too indulgent or 
that his mother persisted in looking only 
upon his best or that he was provided with 
too much money. The daughter believes 
that her mother neglected to tell her many 
things that for her safety she needed to 
know and that she ought to have been 
better guarded with respect to her friend- 
ships. Few there are who have wandered 
into paths of sin that do not hold others 
at least in part responsible. 

Does this blaming of others seem cow- 
ardly? Too long we have thought it 
cowardly in Adam to blame Eve, but only 
because we have dealt in a trivial manner 
with the narrative. The deep truth which 
the great prophet is uttering is that no one 
ever sins alone. Others are always in- 
volved, and are always more or less to 
blame. No man lives, or can live to him- 

41 



Cbe Mblc flle06age tot ftloDcrn filanbooD 

self. Our sinning all but begins before we 
are born. Especially in early years, our 
environment is the larger part of our life 
problem. Others are involved with us, and 
we with them. We are to blame for the sins 
of one another. One's Eve is the man or 
woman at his elbow who leads him to do 
wrong. And the clearness with which this 
fact is brought out in the narrative indi- 
cates the author's comprehensive grasp of 
the whole temptation problem. 

(8) " And the serpent said unto the 
woman, Ye shall not surely die," notwith- 
standing that God had said to her: "Ye 
shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, 
lest ye die." But the woman persuaded 
both herself and her husband that they could 
eat the fruit and escape the punishment. 
How true to life! No man, when he be- 
begins a course of sin, expects to incur the 
punishment for sin. He knows that others 
have incurred the punishment, but he ex- 
pects somehow to escape. No young man 
who indulges in a social glass expects to fill 
a drunkard's grave. No embezzler expects 
to serve time behind prison-bars. No thief 
expects to commit murder and end his life 
on the gallows. No one, as a consequence 

42 



Zbc (Temptation of BDam anD J&ve 

of social sin, expects to have his home 
broken up and himself disgraced. Who 
ever went into sin expecting a diseased 
body, a degraded mind, and a lost soul? 
Who ever sowed the wind with any thought 
of reaping the whirlwind? Who ever be- 
lieved that through sin his heart would be- 
come hard, his conscience seared, his will- 
power impaired, his spiritual perception 
dulled, and his tastes degraded? All these 
results he may have seen in others, but in 
some way he expects to escape them. He 
believes in his own superior strength, or 
he is sure that he has wisdom to turn be- 
fore passing the danger-line. In a word, he 
believes the serpent when it says to him, 
" Ye shall not surely die." 

(9) None escapes punishment. The man 
is punished; in the sweat of his brow he is 
to till the soil. The woman is punished; 
in pain and travail she is to bring forth 
children. The serpent is punished; upon 
his belly he is to go all his days. With sin 
there is no trifling. No explanations or 
excuses are accepted. From the punish- 
ment of sin there is no escape. " The soul 
that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezek. 18:4). 

It is to be noted that no complaint is 

43 



XLbc Mblc caicesngc tot filoDern nttanbooJ) 

offered against the severity of God. His 
punishments are accepted in silence, and 
presumably as just and deserv^ed. Such 
dealing with punishment indicates the reve- 
lation of the mind of the Spirit. The sin- 
ning man seeks to escape just punishment. 
The shallow man makes God careless of 
discipline, both degrading the parent and 
spoiling the child. But the prophet pene- 
trates beneath all self-interest, shallowness, 
and sophistry, and deals with the unre- 
pentant sinner even as does our Lord. 

(lo) After the sin is committed and the 
punishment pronounced, the guilty pair is 
driven forth from the garden. This is an 
act of great mercy. Life with God in the 
garden is henceforth intolerable. 

It is to be noted that no mention is made 
of repentance. Had there been repentance, 
this driving forth from the garden would 
be untrue to life, for a repentant man seeks 
the presence of God, and God welcomes 
him, invites him, even goes to seek him. 
But it is evidently not within the purpose 
of the inspired writer to introduce the sub- 
ject of repentance. He is dealing with 
temptation and, true to his theme, he deals 
with it consistently by showing whither it 

44 



I 



Jibe temptation ot BDam an& iBvc 

drives those who yield to it. The great 
prophet here penetrates to the very heart 
of spiritual life, for the sinning man must 
either repent and return to God's fellow- 
ship or be driven from God's presence. 
For the unrepentant life in the presence 
of God is unbearable. It is both a great 
calamity and a great mercy, but neverthe- 
less a great fact of life, that the sinning 
man, because of the benumbing of his 
moral sensibilities and the deadening of his 
spiritual perceptions, becomes ever more 
and more shut out from God. 

(ii) But who, however far gone in sin, 
does not still hope? And so there is in 
this narrative a promise which expresses 
the hope of the sinner's return to God's 
favor. The serpent has indeed " wounded 
the heel " of man, but the day is coming 
when even that wounded heel shall bruise 
the serpent's head. (Gen. 3:15.) Some 
have seen in this promise a prophecy of 
the Christ. Surely the promise is being 
realized through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
But certainly there is here, first of all, a 
declaration of the undying fact that under 
all human circumstances, and after what- 
ever defeats, " hope springs eternal in the 

45 



Zbc JBMc noeadaae tor modem (nanbooO 

human breast," and that for every sinning 
soul there is hope in God. 

And thus from only a brief review of the 
narrative it is evident that the writer has 
sounded human nature to its profoundest 
depths. The history of temptation from 
beginning to end he has thoroughly mas- 
tered. As a teaching upon temptation this 
story, in its simplicity, comprehensiveness, 
directness, and power, is above and beyond 
all comparison. In the literature of the 
Bible itself it stands alone. It occupies 
only a single chapter of the sacred record, 
and yet not one element of temptation is 
wanting, a. Man comes from the hand 
of his Creator innocent, b. In a world filled 
with good things he is denied comparatively 
little, only the tree in the midst of the 
garden, c. In every temptation the persons 
involved are God, man, and the Evil One. 
d. Between God's will and the will of the 
tempter man must choose, e. To deceive 
man the tempter casts discredit upon the in- 
tegrity and sincerity of Gk^d. /. Man is be- 
guiled by temptation because evil takes on 
a form which is pleasant to the eyes, sweet 
to the senses, and brings a knowledge of 
the world, g. The sinning man hides from 

46 



Ube temptation of BDam and J£vc 

God, and cannot be at home in his presence. 
h. The fallen man blames others for his fall, 
and others are involved with him. i. He 
who yields to temptation persuades himself 
that in his case the inevitable consequences 
will not follow. /. None escapes punish- 
ment. The unrepentant man goes ever 
farther from the presence of God, is driven 
forth from the garden, k. Yet hope does 
not die out of the heart, the seed of the 
woman shall bruise the serpent's head. 
Who, by writing volumes on temptation, 
could add a syllable to the comprehensive- 
ness and depth of this chapter ? 

It is significant of the prophet's under- 
standing of the love and mercy of the 
Creator that he does not represent God as 
driving Adam and Eve from the garden as 
those who are abandoned to themselves and 
beyond the pale of the divine care. God in 
mercy and compassion clothes the guilty 
pair with coats of skin. Though in rebel- 
lion against him, though unrepentant and 
guilt-stained, yet they are the objects of his 
care. 



47 



imn 

Cain an£> Hbel 

Oenesis, tbe fotxvtb Cbapter 



Ill 



OUR first chapter considered the story 
of creation, in which we saw the 
prophetic narrative moving straight on to 
the fact that man is a spiritual being, made 
in the image of God. Our second chap- 
ter dealt with the account of the temp- 
tation of Adam and Eve, which exhibited 
in great fulness the various elements of 
temptation. 

Next in the biblical order comes the story 
of Cain and Abel. And next also in the 
order of life come man's two fundamen- 
tal relations: First, his relation to God, 
expressing itself in worship; and secondly, 
his relation to man, expressing itself in 
conduct. 

With these two relations the narrative of 
Cain and Abel is concerned. In the sim- 
plicity, incisiveness, and comprehensiveness 
with which it treats the problems involved, 
the narrative is unsurpassed. 

51 



Zbc Mbic OiceesiQc toe moDern manboo5 

I. The Historic Setting 

Before taking up the narrative itself, it is 
important to note its setting. 

(i) Have we here a historic account? 
The narrative is certainly realistic. Yet no 
more so than Christ's parable of the Prod- 
igal Son or of Dives and Lazarus. I make 
this comparison, not to suggest that the nar- 
rative of Cain and Abel is parable, but for 
the purpose of again impressing the fact 
that the character of the narrative, although 
interesting, is comparatively unimportant; 
while its fitness for bringing life-lessons to 
the souls of men is all-important. 

In the study of these narratives, however, 
we should now begin to gain an idea of the 
way early history was preserved. As all 
are aware, the Hebrews and Arabs are 
closely akin. In the early days, and in the 
shepherd life especially, their habits were 
similar. Around their camp-fires in the 
evening the Arabs to-day relate incidents 
in the lives of their heroes or any noted 
events in their history. This has been their 
custom for ages. In this way stories are 
repeated by parents to children from gen- 
eration to generation. As always in such 

52 



Cain and Bbel 

repetition, unnecessary details are sifted out 
of the narratives, and the saHent points em- 
phasized, until in the fewest possible words 
the righteous act is approved, the heroism 
commended, or the sin denounced. When 
finally the story is put into writing it con- 
stitutes, not a detailed history, much less 
simply a parable, but a basis of historic 
fact, wrought over and over, condensed 
at one point, emphasized at another, and 
fashioned into the best possible medium 
for conveying truth. To be assured that 
such was the method of the Hebrews in 
preserving the most important events of 
their history, and of teaching them to their 
children, we have but to turn to the biblical 
record itself: 

In speaking about the Passover service, 
God said to Moses : " When your children 
shall say unto you. What mean ye by this 
service? ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of 
the Lord's passover, who passed over the 
houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, 
when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered 
our houses " (Exod. 12 : 26). When Joshua 
led Israel across the Jordan into the prom- 
ised land, God bade him command twelve 
men, from every tribe a man, to take stones 

53 



Zbc JSible fnesaade for modern CHanbood 

from the bed of the Jordan and pile them 
up for a memorial in the place where they 
should first lodge after crossing. The rea- 
son God gave for such a memorial was: 
" That this may be a sign among you, that, 
when your children ask in time to come, say- 
ing, What mean ye by these stones? then 
ye shall say unto them, Because the waters 
of the Jordan were cut off before the ark 
of the covenant of the Lord ; when it passed 
over the Jordan the waters of the Jordan 
were cut off " (Josh. 4: 6f.). There is con- 
stant reference in the Old Testament to 
the habit of the fathers narrating to the 
children the important facts of their national 
history. Indeed, they were commanded not 
only to narrate them, but also to erect 
memorials to commemorate them. 

In some such fashion, therefore, these 
early stories were doubtless handed down 
generation after generation, in some cases 
for many centuries, until an inspired 
prophet, seizing upon such as were suited 
to God's message, put them into permanent 
written form. Surely they are filled with 
the profoundest life-lessons that words can 
utter and bear the most-needed truths from 
the heart of God to the soul of man. 

54 



Cain and Bbel 

(2) In this narrative of Cain and Abel 
what may be called the background, though 
not of special importance, is very interest- 
ing. Cain, a tiller of the ground, and Abel, 
a keeper of sheep, dwell near each other. 
This fact is thought to locate the scene 
of the narrative in southern Palestine, 
where for centuries the two industries 
flourished side by side. The institution 
of sacrifice seems to be well developed, for 
there is no indication that in sacrificing 
the brothers are doing anything excep- 
tional. The surrounding country is al- 
ready filled with people whose vengeance 
Cain fears as he goes forth from his home. 
That blood-revenge is an existing institu- 
tion is shown by Cain's fear that whosoever 
finds him will slay him. Cain is, therefore, 
afraid to go forth from the " presence of 
Jehovah," for, according to the ancient con- 
ception, each god had power to protect 
his worshipers only if they remained within 
his jurisdiction. The mark of protection 
placed upon Cain is thought to have been 
some tribal mark which laid every member 
of the tribe under obligations to protect 
him and avenge his injuries, thus ward- 
ing off the stroke of the blood-avenger, 

55 



^be aBible medsade toe flloDem tnanbood 

Such is the setting of the story as derived 
from hints in the narrative itself. 

2, Worship 

(i) Some have thought that Abel's offer- 
ing was accepted because it involved the 
shedding of blood, and also that this shed- 
ding of blood was prophetic of Christ. 
Every reference in the Old Testament to 
our Lord Jesus Christ has special sacred- 
ness to the writer of this book. But we do 
the Scriptures great wrong when we read 
back into them from later history what they 
do not contain or even contemplate. 

Some still discuss the question as to 
whether the fact that Cain's sacrifice was 
bloodless constituted his fault. At no time 
in Israel's history is there an instance or 
an intimation of God's rejecting any offer- 
ing because it did not involve the shedding 
of blood. On the other hand, the fruits of 
the field were offered side by side with 
slain animals and met with equal acceptance. 
Jewish legislation commands both kinds of 
offerings. The introduction into the Cain 
and Abel story of this question of the shed- 
ding of blood seems, therefore, utterly with- 
out warrant. The whole narrative is so 

S6 



Cain and Bbel 

constructed that it is both natural and rea- 
sonable for Cain, the farmer, to present to 
God the fruits of the field ; while it is equally 
natural and reasonable for Abel, the shep- 
herd, to present an offering from his flocks. 
Why should the writer of the narrative, 
who is charging Cain with fault, obscure 
by an uncertain phrase knowledge so vital 
to all worshipers? If the offering of the 
wrong sacrifice were Cain's fault, it was 
easy for the writer to indicate it plainly. 
Indeed, it is a fact worthy of commenda- 
tion in the conduct of the brothers that 
each offers to God just what he has, and the 
narrative is so arranged as to put that fact 
strongly. Whether it was in the mind of 
the writer as a spiritual teaching, who shall 
say? The teaching is traceable throughout 
the Bible, though it is not specially con- 
nected with sacrifice. 

(2) The great lesson upon which the 
narrative focuses attention is that Cain's 
offering was rejected on account of Cain's 
sin. The writer says specifically that it 
Cain had done " well," that is, had been 
righteous, his offering would have been ac- 
cepted as readily as Abel's. The wording is, 
"If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted 

57 



Zbe Mblc fulceaase for fiilo&em fulanbooD 

up? " There is no indication of what Cain's 
sin was, only that he did not do " well." 
But the particular sin is of no special sig- 
nificance. It is wholly a question of God 
accepting an offering in lieu of righteous- 
ness. 

One is astonished to find in this early 
narrative a teaching that is the oft-recurring 
message of the prophets, the plain teachings 
of Christ, and the insistent claim of our 
own day, viz., that an unrepentant sinner 
cannot please God with offerings. Turn- 
ing to Isaiah, we read : " To what purpose 
is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? 
saith the Lord: . . Bring no more vain 
oblations" (Isa. i:ii, 13). Why are not 
the offerings of the people acceptable to 
God? Because the people are not right 
in life. "Wash you, make you clean; put 
away the evil of your doings from before 
mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do 
well " (Isa. 1 : 16). Even in the Apocrypha 
we read : " The sacrifice of a righteous man 
is acceptable; and the memorial thereof 
shall not be forgotten" (Sirach 35:7). 
Christ utters the same truth in these words : 
" If therefore thou art offering thy gift at 
the altar, and there rememberest that thy 

58 



Cain atiD Bbel 

brother hath aught against thee, leave there 
thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, 
first be reconciled to thy brother, and then 
come and offer thy gift " (Matt. 5 : 2^, 24). 
And no religious truth is more insisted upon 
to-day, not only by pulpit and pew, but also 
by the world at large, than that worship is 
vain unless the life is consistent therewith. 
It is significant of the inspired character 
of this narrative that its writer in dealing 
with worship, should pierce at once to the 
very heart of the subject and make clear a 
truth insisted upon by all the prophets, em- 
phasized by Christ, and held as one of the 
most settled convictions of our century. 

(3) Attention should be called to the 
fact that there is no mention of repentance 
in this narrative. The prophetic writer 
knows how to " stick to his text " ; and, 
just as in the narrative of the tempta- 
tion he drove straight on to show how God 
deals with the sinner, not complicating his 
theme with the question of repentance, so 
here, with like clearness, he shows God's 
attitude toward a sinner's worship. Writing 
in a day when sinners and saints alike of- 
fered sacrifices to some god, his purpose is 
evidently to contrast Jehovah's attitude 

59 



Zbc M\)lc VRCBBaQc tot (HloDetn fllanbood 

toward the worship of the righteous with his 
attitude toward the worship of the wicked. 
In this contrast the question of repentance, 
though not mentioned, is quite clear, for, 
from the character of God as shown in the 
narrative, it goes without saying that if 
Cain had come to God repentant his offer- 
ing would have been accepted. 

(4) One does not realize the great im- 
portance of this narrative, teaching as it 
does that sin renders worship unacceptable 
to God, until he calls to mind that heathen 
nations did not connect righteousness with 
worship. Indeed, much of their worship 
was positively immoral. In this narrative 
is begun the century-long struggle of the 
Hebrew prophets, in which they strove to 
secure the very thing that the sacred writer 
here insists upon, viz., to get righteousness 
connected with worship. Even in Christ's 
time the scribes and Pharisees, standing 
in long robes and broad phylacteries, made 
long prayers, which they thought were ac- 
ceptable to God. Though they were the 
leaders of worship, Christ calls them robbers 
of widows and orphans and declares that 
the publicans and harlots enter the kingdom 
of God before them. 

60 



Cain anD Bbel 

Throughout all the Christian centuries 
also, there have been ardent and enthu- 
siastic worshipers, but much indifferent liv- 
ing. The linking together of the v^rorship 
of God with righteousness of life has been 
an age-long struggle, a struggle which really 
holds within itself the whole problem of 
civilization. When we consider the depth 
and the difficulties of the problem, we 
marvel at the clearness with which it is 
set forth by the inspired writer in this early 
narrative. 

(5) The story of Cain and Abel also 
makes clear without seeming effort what 
constitutes the normal and balanced life, 
the life that is well pleasing to God. It is 
not worship alone ; nor yet " well-doing " 
alone; but both together. While God re- 
fuses to accept the worship of Cain because 
he has not " done well," one cannot imagine 
Jehovah saying to Abel, *' Because you have 
done well you need not worship me." Wor- 
ship is taken for granted in connection with 
well-doing. 

This fact needs emphasis in our day. 
This narrative is right in its teaching that 
worship is vain without righteousness, and 
Christians should accept the criticism of 

61 



Zbc Bible aiCBs$iQC tot Alo^em nianbooD 

the world at this point. But the narrative 
is equally right in what it takes for granted, 
that though a man does toward his brother 
as he would be done by, he is not therefore 
at liberty to ignore God and neglect wor- 
ship. 

J. Social Relations 

We have seen how clearly this narrative 
sets forth man's right relation to God. An- 
other relation which it makes clear — a twin 
relation to the first — is man's right relation 
to his brother man. Ours is the social 
century and we have many text-books on 
sociology, but the first statement on this 
subject is the story of Cain and Abel in 
the fourth chapter of Genesis. Its diagnosis 
of the social disease is accurate and the 
cure it prescribes is the only efiFective one. 
The disease — call it by whatever fine 
phrases we will — is that man is his brother's 
murderer. The murder may be physical, 
social, economic, or spiritual. John says 
that " whosoever hateth his brother is a 
murderer" (i John 3: 15). The murderer 
is the man with the murderous spirit, the 
man who strikes down his brother in any 
sense or by any means whatsoever. 

62 



Cain anD Bbct 

The cure which the narrative prescribes 
also is the only one, that man is his 
brother's keeper. It is not my purpose, 
however, to discuss sociology, but only to 
make clear the teaching of the narrative, in 
order that it may become evident that 
through it God is speaking to men. 

In this narrative is found a complete 
catalogue of the soul movements observable 
in social wrong-doing — jealousy, deceit, the 
overt act, the lie to cover it up, and the 
denial of responsibility. 

(i) Jealousy. Cain is jealous of Abel 
because Abel's offering meets with favor, 
while his own does not. Abel is a simple, 
God-fearing man, and not responsible for 
God's treatment of Cain; nor is he re- 
sponsible for Cain's sin. It is only just 
that God should look with favor upon 
Abel's offering. But jealousy knows noth- 
ing of reason or justice. It is the first and 
most fundamental social sin. Man looks 
with jealous eyes upon his brother's suc- 
cess, and desires for himself what his 
brother possesses. With the social problem, 
therefore, the inspired writer begins at the 
beginning, for jealousy is the source whence 
all social discords spring. 

63 



Zbc Mblc dleadage foe fnodetn lilanboob 

(2) Deceit. And now, in seeming friend- 
ship, Cain invites Abel to walk with him 
in the field. " Let us go into the field " 
(as found in the Greek Bible), he says. 
Deceit is the first-born child of jealousy. 
Cain has a fair face, but a daggered hand. 
He is like one who presents to another's 
lips a sparkling but poisonous cup. 

This element of Cain's sin assumes 
many forms in modem society. For ex- 
ample, you have a dollar that I covet, and 
so I put red gauze over my peaches to 
make you believe that they are just the 
peaches you want, when I know that they 
are green and sour. Or I send you the 
literature of a mine, " from which gold 
is just about to be shipped," when I am 
fully aware that there is no gold in the 
mine. Or I send you a patent medicine 
that " will cure all your ills," when I know 
perfectly well that the brandy in it will 
stimulate you for a little while and that 
afterward you will be worse than ever. 
Whatever the form, deceit is the first 
method of perpetrating social wrong be- 
tween those of equal standing. 

(3) The Overt Act. When by deceit Cain 
had led Abel into the field where there was 

64 



Cain and Bbel 

none to protect him and where he could 
strike him when off guard, he seized his 
advantage and slew him. This method of 
doing social wrong has not changed. For 
example, the brewer says to the saloon- 
keeper : " The nickels that you pay out for 
treats to the boys now will come back to 
you in dollars after a while." And when 
the boy has been deceived and his manhood 
slain, the dollars do come back' — murderer's 
dollars, reeking with blood. Or the mo- 
nopolist, with a smile, out of sheer gener- 
osity, as he would have you think, puts 
down the price of goods until he has 
crowded out his competitor, but when you 
are at his mercy he makes you pay double, 
and thus slays you inch by inch. If one 
visit our city tenements and ask, Why 
the overcrowding? Why the filth and dis- 
ease? it will be discovered that the land- 
lord has the tenant at his mercy and is 
committing the " overt act." Or if one in- 
quire when the strike is called, he will 
learn that it is usually when the contractor 
is helpless and the public at the mercy of 
the strikers. 

In the light of such facts of modern 
life, it is clear with what insight and accu- 

E 65 



Zbc DSible mesdadc for flloDetn OQanbooD 

racy the inspired writer sets forth the 
method of social wrong-doing, and with 
what unquaHfied condemnation he brands 
it by designating it murder. 

(4) The Lie to Hide the Wrong. " Where 
is thy brother ? " Jehovah asks. " I know 
not," the murderer repHes. It is only a 
step from deceit to an out-and-out lie, and 
a full commitment of one's self to the 
wrong. The narrative brings out with start- 
ling vividness how inevitably Cain rushes 
headlong from the less sin to the greater. 
The point is so clear and so true to life that 
one need not dwell upon it, for all know that 
whoever deliberately injures his fellow man 
will lie to defend himself or to cover up 
his wrong. 

(5) Renunciation of Responsibility. In 
a single sentence the prophetic writer rep- 
resents Cain both as lying to God about 
his brother and as disclaiming responsibility 
for him. In this renunciation of respon- 
sibility we come to the very heart of the 
social teaching of this narrative. Here is 
the writer's emphasis and climax. Here 
the narrative is stained crimson with the 
blood-guiltiness of Cain, and breathed 
through and through with the passion of 

66 



Cam mt> BDel 

God. " Cain," it makes God say, " thou 
hast Hed; I saw thee with thy brother; 
thou hast killed him; thou art responsible; 
his very blood has a voice, and crieth unto 
me from the ground, which henceforth to 
thee shall be barren." 

Need one say that social wrong in all 
its forms is but another name for the re- 
nunciation of responsibility ? Wherever one 
meets social injustice there he meets the 
question, " Am I my brother's keeper ? " 
There he meets the vulgar motto, " Every 
one for himself, and the devil take the hind- 
most." There he meets that spirit which 
says, *' I look out for number one, and 
every one else must do the same." All are 
but different expressions of the renunciation 
of responsibility for one's fellows. 

And thus it becomes apparent that this 
narrative is sounding the social problem to 
its depths and settling it in the only way 
that it ever will or can be settled. Man 
must be his brother's keeper. But in order 
to be his brother's keeper he must first be 
right with God. Indeed, this narrative gives 
us in a life-picture what is equivalent to 
Christ's summing up of the law and the 
prophets : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 

67 



XTbe Bible aiC66dLQC for modetn fllanbooD 

God with all thy heart, . . and thy neighbor 
as thyself" (Luke 10:27). 

4. Answerable to God 

The prophetic writer is not done, how- 
ever, when he has made plain man's duty 
to his brother. For his treatment of his 
brother he must reckon with his God. 

(i) It is significant that the narrative 
does not say, the voice of thy brother's 
blood crieth from the ground to you, Cain ; 
but rather, " to me," Jehovah. When man 
has wronged his brother, he stops his ears 
to his brother's cries and the cry is vain. 
What cares the taskmaster for the cry of 
the slave? the brewer for the cry of 
homeless children? the stock-gambler for 
his ruined victims? Only as the cry comes 
to God and is taken up by men and women 
who fear God and love righteousness, men 
and women who hear as God hears, see as 
God sees, feel as God feels, and care as 
God cares, — men and women through whom 
God is doing his work in the world, has 
there ever been or will there ever be any 
righting of wrongs. 

(2) At length the narrative brings the 
curse upon Cain, and we see him as he goes 

68 



Cain an& Bbel 

forth into the land of Nod, the land of 
wandering. How remarkably true to his- 
tory is this curse — to the history of Israel 
in bondage and exile, to the history of 
Greece in her wantonness, to the history 
of Rome in her brutality, to the history of 
Spain in her tyranny over the weak, to the 
history of every nation that has ignored the 
laws of God and the rights of men ! 

(3) Yet, it is not for man to take venge- 
ance in kind. *' Whosoever slayeth Cain, 
vengeance shall be taken on him seven- 
fold " (Gen. 4:15). Murder cannot be 
righted by murder nor deceit by deceit nor 
injury of any kind by injury of like kind. 
Christ has shown a better way and the only 
successful way: ''Love your enemies, do 
good to them that hate you, bless them that 
curse you, pray for them that despitefully 
use you " (Luke 6 : 27, 28) . 

(4) As in the temptation narrative Jeho- 
vah clothed the guilty pair with skins, so 
now he places the tribal mark upon the 
murderer. It is a mark of protection. 
Though Cain is guilty and unrepentant, Je- 
hovah loves him, guards him, and provides 
for him. It is the marvel of marvels, but 
nevertheless the fact in the life of every 

69 



Zbe JBible flnesaage tor fllo2)etn fHanbooD 

sinning man. " For he maketh his sun to 
rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth 
rain on the just and the unjust" (Matt. 
5:45). By his goodness God would lead 
man to repentance, saying to him as in seem- 
ing sorrow he said to Cain : " If thou doest 
well, shall it not be lifted up? and if thou 
doest not well, sin coucheth at the door." 



70 



w 

Zhc (5rcat ffIoo^ 

(Stnceis, Cbapters Six to Sigbt 



IV 



I. Flood Stories 

NEARLY all nations that dwell beside 
the sea have traditions of a great 
flood. This is true of the Egyptians, Chal- 
deans, Greeks, Scythians, Peruvians, Mex- 
icans, the aborigines of Cuba, the Indians 
of North America, the South Sea Islanders, 
and many others. Indeed, the only races 
that do not have such traditions are those 
living in Africa and in central and eastern 
Asia. 

(i) Such wide-spread traditions cer- 
tainly point to a common fact; to a flood 
so notable in character and extent that the 
report of it was related by parents to chil- 
dren generation after generation. It is by 
no means necessary to conclude that all such 
traditions reach back to a single event. 
Many catastrophes have overwhelmed now 
one seacoast and now another. Of this 
fact the Galveston flood is a modern ex- 

73 



Vkbc JBible flleddade for moDetn manbooD 

ample on a small scale. A sudden sub- 
sidence of land or an earthquake tidal wave, 
by overwhelming a city, valley, or island, 
might easily give rise to such a tradition 
among any people living near the sea. 

(2) The scene of the Flood-narrative of 
the Bible is evidently located in the Eu- 
phrates Valley and is doubtless based on 
the memory of some great catastrophe 
which, owing to prolonged hurricane, land 
subsidence, or a tremendous tidal wave, 
caused the sea to sweep over that valley 
from side to side and from end to end, des- 
troying cities and annihilating the inhab- 
itants. 

(3) The closest parallel to the biblical 
narrative is the Babylonian story of a flood. 
It is recorded on the clay tablets of the 
great Assyrian library, which was founded 
about the middle of the eighth century be- 
fore Christ and has come to our knowledge 
through modern excavations. In these 
records there are two or more accounts of a 
flood, at least an earlier and a later one. 

Scholars claim to find in the Bible also, 
an earlier and a later siory of the flood 
woven together. They say that the earlier 
biblical account has its closest parallel in 

74 



^be (5tcat ^looD 

the earlier Babylonian account, while the 
later biblical narrative shows modifications 
similar to those in the later Babylonian story. 

(4) The similarities and dissimilarities 
in the biblical and Babylonian accounts are 
as follows: 

Similarities: a. To the hero in each ac- 
count a special revelation is given to build 
an ark. 

b. In each case the flood is caused by 
an extraordinary storm of rain. 

c. Both animals and people are taken into 
the ark. 

d. All men and animals outside of the 
ark are destroyed. 

e. Seven is the favorite number. 

/. Birds are sent out three times, and the 
last ones fail to return. 

g. Upon coming out of the ark the hero 
offers a sacrifice to God, or the gods. 

h. God, or the gods, smell the sweet 
savor of the sacrifice and are pleased. 

i. Assurance is given that man will not 
again be destroyed by a flood. 

Such similarities indicate that these 
accounts are related in some way to each 
other. But the differences are as marked 
and as significant as the similarities: 

75 



XTbe iflSible (XlceeaQc tot nriodern filanbooD 

a. In the biblical account there is one 
God, while in the Babylonian there are 
many. 

b. In the biblical account there is on 
the part of Jehovah a clearly defined and 
well-executed purpose, while in the Baby- 
lonian the gods deceive, quarrel, and are 
frightened. 

c. In the biblical account Jehovah comes 
down to smell the sweet savor of the sacri- 
fice and to accept the offering of Noah in a 
manner wholly dignified and worthy, while 
in the Babylonian account the gods swarm 
like flies about the sacrifice. 

d. The biblical account gives sin as the 
cause of the catastrophe, while the Babylo- 
nian gives no cause other than the caprice 
of the gods. 

e. The biblical story has a spiritual sig- 
nificance, while the Babylonian is wholly 
devoid of moral purpose. 

(5) In the biblical narrative we should 
observe certain orientalisms. As we have 
formerly noted, God is represented as act- 
ing like a man. He " repents " that he has 
made man. He is "grieved at the heart." 
He " smells " the sweet savor of Noah's 
offering. 

76 



^be 0rcat 3f looO 

The most perplexing of these oriental- 
isms is that the sons of God are said to 
marry the daughters of men — evidently as 
many as they please — thus producing a race 
of giants. In the first chapter of the Flood- 
narrative this inter-marriage is given as a 
cause for the sinfulness of men. 

In the oriental world it was not an un- 
common belief that the traditional races of 
giants were produced by the union of demi- 
gods with men. The kings of Babylon 
traced their ancestry to the gods. In Greek 
mythology the Titans result from the mar- 
riage of the gods with men. " In his 
familiar dialogues Plato says : ' Do you not 
know that the heroes are demigods. All 
of them spring either from the love of a 
god for a mortal woman or of a mortal man 
for a goddess.' " ^ Herodotus says that the 
Egyptians were the only ones who did not 
hold that belief. It may seem strange to 
some that the inspired writer did not cor- 
rect that error. But it is not strange. 
These narratives are all couched in the 
ideas of their own day, and they would have 
been useless otherwise. It did not come 
within the purpose of the prophetic writer, 

1 Kent, " Heroes and Crises of Early Hebrew History," p. 57. 

77 



^be JBible meggase for flloDcrn ftlanbooD 

as we shall see, to discuss how men came 
to be sinful. That problem he left as he 
found it in the ideas of his times, for he was 
intent on a very different matter. 

Our Lord pursued precisely the same 
method of teaching. He did not disturb, 
for example, the current notion that many 
diseases, such as epilepsy and insanity, were 
due to demoniacal possession. Since it was 
the custom of the people to drink wine, he 
turned water into wine, something which he 
surely would not do to-day. The outworn 
Jewish ideas and ceremonials he did not tear 
down. On the other hand, he made use of 
them, although he well knew that they would 
soon pass away. Christ often did things 
morally colorless to escape needless contro- 
versy and avoid giving needless offense, as 
when he sent Peter to take money from the 
fish's mouth for the temple tax, and the ten 
lepers to the priests to offer sacrifices for 
their cleansing. Just as any given parable 
of our Lord's does not teach at all points, 
but expresses some one truth in current 
language, so also these Old Testament nar- 
ratives do not teach at all points, but ex- 
press in current ideas some one great truth. 

What then is the teaching of this Flood- 

78 



ZTbe (5ccat 3f looD 

narrative? What message does it bring 
from God to men? Recent excavations 
show that the flood story was current two 
thousand years before Christ.^ The 
prophet, therefore, makes use of a story that 
had been in writing for hundreds of years. 
The only question of supreme importance 
is, What does he use it to teach ? 

2. The Teaching 

(i) Getting the Key. If one enter a 
house by cHmbing through a window in 
the dark, and in doing so tip over a table 
and overturn some chairs, when he strikes 
a match all is in confusion. The best way 
to enter a house is to get a key and open 
the front door. Then when the electric 
button is pushed everything is seen to be in 
order. These great Bible narratives are 
houses built for spiritual homes, wherein 
we are to eat and drink and be made 
spiritually strong. The first thing neces- 
sary in studying any of them, therefore, is 
to get the key, viz., to discern the truth 
which the writer purposes to present; for 
this truth determines both the selection and 
arrangement of his materials. When one 

1 Skinner, '* Genesis," p. 177, note. 

79 



Zbc :fi8il>[e meaaaae for flDo^em manbooD 

discerns the particular point upon which the 
prophet's emphasis rests, subsidiary ques- 
tions fall away as unimportant and as in- 
cident to the ideas of the times. 

(2) This Flood-narrative furnishes a 
notable example of the wisdom of enter- 
ing by the door rather than through the 
window. For example, it might seem good 
exegesis to point to the sinful conditions 
existing just before the flood and hold that 
these conditions were an example of the 
ravaging nature of sin, which spreads 
like a disease until all are infected and 
doomed to destruction. This fact is true 
enough of sin, but upon it the emphasis of 
this narrative does not fall. The writer 
does not discuss the cause of sin, nor does 
he trace its development; but, on the other 
hand, he brings us suddenly and unex- 
pectedly upon a society wholly corrupt, ex- 
cept for Noah and his family. The cause 
of sin, which is stated only incidentally, is 
that familiar to the ideas of the times, viz., 
that the sons of God married the daugh- 
ters of men. Upon this fact, however, no 
emphasis is placed. Had the author's em- 
phasis been upon the cause of sin and were 
he seeking to eradicate that cause, it would 

80 



Ebc Great If looO 

have been much more to his purpose to ex- 
hibit some method of keeping the sons of 
God at home than to exhibit the men they 
had sinned against overwhehned in a flood. 
(3) But, as with every good writer, the 
prophet's emphasis makes clear his pur- 
pose. He brings us suddenly upon a world 
filled with sinners. The impression we 
receive is that of confusion and license in 
which sin runs riot. Then, over against a 
world filled with abandoned sinners he 
places Noah, the righteous man, the man 
who finds favor in the eyes of Jehovah. 
In this sharp contrast lies the teaching of 
the Flood-narrative. Two things are made 
clear: First, that God's attitude toward the 
sinful is different from his attitude toward 
the righteous ; and secondly, that the destiny 
of the sinful is different from the destiny 
of the righteous. 

J. God's Attitudes 

(i) In the first part of the narrative it is 
made clear that God is for the righteous 
and against the wicked. Jehovah is shown 
to be displeased and grieved at heart with 
sinners. Because of man's sin he repents 
that he has made man. Because there is no 

F 81 



Ube Xiblc Vtlcee^Qc for fllodecn fllanbood 

hope of reform he plans man's destruction. 
That is, Jehovah is against sinners. 

On the other hand, Noah is found right- 
eous. With him, therefore, God is well 
pleased and, because well pleased, he plans 
to rescue him from the general destruction. 
In accordance with this plan, God lets Noah 
into his secret, bids him build an ark, gives 
him careful instructions, and rescues him 
and his family alive while all others 
perish. How could any writer more force- 
fully impress the fact that Jehovah is for 
the righteous? 

(2) In this fact, that God is against the 
wicked and for the righteous, we reach the 
very core of religion. This is the central 
truth which the Bible, both in the Old and 
New Testaments, labors to teach. The 
Bible's insistent and ever-recurring message 
is that God places a fundamental difference 
between sin and righteousness and that his 
attitude toward the one is wholly different 
from his attitude toward the other. What 
is the teaching of the Jewish sacrificial sys- 
tem, with its purgings, sin-offerings, sprink- 
lings, purifyings, and washings? Simply 
that God is holy and that in order to be 
well pleasing to him one must put away 

82 



^be Great 3Floot> 

sin. What was the significance of the 
architecture of the temple, its outer courts, 
its holy place, and its holy of holies? Was 
it not that God was separating the sinful 
from the righteous ? This also was the con- 
tinuous message of the prophets. They de- 
clared that sin had separated the people 
from their God; that sin was the cause of 
the nation's captivity; that sin had made 
their crops to fail, their vineyards to be 
blasted, and their children to be slain. 
" Return unto me, and I will return unto 
you, saith Jehovah of hosts," cried the 
prophets. (Zech. 1:3; Mai. 3:7.) But as 
long as the people clung to their sin Jeho- 
vah was against them. This is the great 
truth that rings clear in the message of 
John the Baptist. '' Repent ye ; for the 
kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 
3:2). God wants to bring the kingdom 
speedily, but it must be founded in right- 
eousness and a turning to God must pre- 
pare the way for it. This also is the teach- 
ing of Christ. When the Father said, 
" This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
well pleased" (Matt. 3: 17), he said it of 
one who knew no sin. Christ came to re- 
deem men from sin in order that they might 

83 



Zbc aeiblc ftlcasasc tor ftloDern lilanboo5 

be reconciled to God. As long as man per- 
sists in sin there is no reconciliation. God 
is against sin. The life of the sinless Christ, 
the teaching of Christ, and the preaching 
of the apostles — all are a setting- forth of 
this basal fact, that God is against sin and 
for righteousness. 

(3) Need one say that the moral and 
spiritual weakness of our times lies in the 
fact that our constant emphasis upon the 
fatherhood of God and upon the love of 
our heavenly Father has led many by subtle 
and imperceptible stages to think that God 
is indifferent to sin, and that there is not 
so much difference after all between the 
sinning man and the righteous man. I 
would lead the reader back through the 
centuries of Christian history, which show 
God's blessings upon the righteous ; through 
the preaching of the apostles; through the 
life and teachings of Christ; through the 
centuries of prophetic teaching and Jew- 
ish sacrifices to the story of the flood, not 
for its historic significance, but because the 
Spirit of the Eternal God bade his prophet 
use the incident to make clear to men that 
Jehovah makes an eternal difference be- 
tween righteousness and sin, that he looks 

84 



upon the one with favor and upon the 
other with unsparing condemnation. 

4, Final Destiny 

The second fact which the Flood-narra- 
tive makes clear is the final destiny of the 
righteous and the wicked. The righteous 
were saved and the wicked destroyed. 

(i) Until we reach the account of the 
flood there is in the Bible narratives no de- 
struction of the wicked. Adam and Eve 
were simply driven out of the garden, and 
even while being driven out they were 
mercifully clothed with skins. Cain was 
simply driven from the face of Jehovah, 
that is, according to the ideas of the times, 
from the protection of Jehovah; but in 
sending him forth Jehovah placed upon him 
a mark of protection in order that he might 
not be slain. In the case of both Adam 
and Cain, however, we see sin only in its 
beginnings. But in the Flood-narrative we 
come suddenly upon sin after it has run 
its course and done its work. All hope, 
except in the case of Noah and his family, 
is at an end. 

(2) When we consider that in the whole 
Old Testament there is practically no teach- 

85 



Zbc 3Btble fllesgaae for ttloDcrn rtlanbooD 

ing about the hereafter ; that there are only 
the merest adumbrations of heaven and 
hell; that, doubtless owmg to the limited 
spiritual capacity of the people, practically 
all rewards and punishm.ents were set forth 
as physical and temporal, we begin to dis- 
cern the significance and the mighty force 
of this Flood-narrative for the spiritual 
teaching of the times. 

Not until Christ's time is the fact of 
eternal life made certain and its significance 
plain. That Hebrew thought concerned it- 
self most of all with physical good and evil, 
temporal rewards and punishments, appears 
on every page of the Old Testament. 
Abraham, because righteous, was promised 
a goodly land and descendants as numer- 
ous as the stars. Before the destruction 
of Sodom Abraham inquired of God, " Wilt 
thou consume the righteous with the 
wicked?" (Gen. 18:23.) That the right- 
eous and the wicked should meet the same 
physical fate seemed to Abraham utterly 
wrong. God said to Moses at Sinai when 
the Israelites made the golden calf, " Let 
me alone, that my wrath may wax hot 
against them" (Exod. 32: 10). It was to 
be a physical destruction. Indeed, the re- 

86 



ward that for centuries glowed before the 
imagination of the children of Israel was 
the physical reward of the promised land. 

Throughout the Psalms the punishment 
implored to fall upon enemies, who were 
always thought of as sinners against Jeho- 
vah, was that they might be defeated in 
battle, a physical punishment. On the other 
hand, when Israel was defeated in battle 
and carried into captivity, the prophets de- 
clared that the physical calamity was on 
account of Israel's sin. And thus every- 
where in the Old Testament rewards for 
righteousness and punishments for sin are 
represented as physical. 

Among all the writings of the Old Testa- 
ment there is not another which makes the 
final destiny of the righteous and the wicked 
so unmistakable, which sets it forth in a 
manner so unforgetable, and which leaves 
such an indelible impress upon the mind as 
does this Flood-narrative. 

(3) Christ teaches that he is the fulfil- 
ment of the law and the prophets ; and, true 
to his claim, he carries the lesson of the 
flood forward from physical to spiritual 
destiny, from temporal to eternal rewards 
and punishments. 

87 



Z\)c 3Bible OlcesaQC tor fHloDern filanbooD 

It is not without significance that our 
Lord's representations of the punishments 
of the wicked are even more terrible than 
those of the flood — the worm that never 
dies, the fire that is never quenched, the 
seething lake of fire and brimstone. In the 
New Testament these representations are 
the outstanding and unforgetable punish- 
ments of the wicked, as the destructive flood 
is in the Old Testament. And Christ him- 
self refers both to the flood and to the fiery 
destruction of Sodom in connection with 
the doom of the wicked in the " day that the 
Son of man is revealed" (Luke iy:26f.). 

Such strong representations are impera- 
tive when one considers that the punishment 
and loss of the wicked are what make re- 
demption necessary, and that the diflference 
in destiny of righteous and wicked is the 
fact on which redemption is based. Unless 
the sinning man is a lost man, Christ's life 
is shorn of its chief significance and his 
death on the cross of its main objective. 
Nowhere in the Old Testament is there a 
better and stronger putting of this funda- 
mental difference which God makes be- 
tween righteous and wicked than is found 
in the great Flood-narrative. 



ID 



Hbrabam, tbe flOan wbo Qf>c^ci> 

(Beneste, Cbaptcrs Uwelve to UvoentB^two 



y^ 



7. The Character of the History 

THE story of Abraham, beginning in 
the twelfth chapter of Genesis, intro- 
duces us to the most clearly defined historic 
situation that we have yet met in our study 
of early Bible narratives. 

(i) To Abraham the Jews traced the 
origin of their history. Jehovah they ad- 
dressed as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob. Referring to this fact of origin, 
Paul says that not those who were the 
natural seed of Abraham were his true chil- 
dren, but rather those who had the faith 
of Abraham; and referring to the same 
fact, Christ affirmed that God was able 
even from stones to raise up children unto 
Abraham. 

(2) But although we feel ourselves on 
safer ground than heretofore, it is of the 
utmost importance for us to understand the 
character of the history. 

91 



^be Bible fflessaae tot niloDern fuianbooD 

a. First of all, it is sifted history. In 
former chapters reference was made to the 
fact that when history is not written on 
the spot — and the best history is never thus 
written — ^but handed down as tradition 
from generation to generation, the facts 
irrelevant to the main theme fall away, 
while the marked incidents and the signifi- 
cant facts emerge into correspondingly 
greater prominence, until they are the only 
things that remain. 

The most cursory examination of Abra- 
ham's history will show it to be made up of 
a small number of intensely interesting and 
significant events, each of which, from a 
purely literary standpoint, is practically 
complete in itself. Questions of detail are 
omitted. There are no answers to such 
questions as, How did God communicate 
with Abraham? What were the incidents 
of the journey to Canaan? How long was 
he on the way? What sort of reception 
did he receive in the new land? and many 
others. Evidently the narrative never was 
intended to give detailed history. 

b. It may well be believed also that the 
history of Abraham and his successors is 
selected history, that is, history made up 

92 



Bbrabam, tbc fBlan wbo ©beisct) (Bob 

of incidents selected from many unrecorded 
events, and for the distinct purpose of teach- 
ing spiritual truth. It scarcely need be said 
that to give a detailed history of Abraham's 
life would require not a meager ten chap- 
ters, but a volume. 

In the historical portions of the New 
Testament this selective compression of 
narrative is very prominent. Indeed, it is 
the prevailing method of writing. John 
says that if all the things that Christ did 
were recorded, he presumes the world itself 
would not be able to contain all the books 
that should be written. (John 21:25.) 
Each of the Gospel writers condenses whole 
days of miracle-working into single sen- 
tences. And in Paul's life there are years 
at a time of which practically nothing is 
recorded. 

c. This selective process in Abraham's 
history is doubtless governed by a spiritual 
purpose, just as it is in the Gospels. John 
announces the purpose of writing his Gos- 
pel in the following words : " These are 
written, that ye may believe that Jesus is 
the Christ, the Son of God; and that be- 
lieving ye may have life in his name " 
(John 20: 31). 

93 



Zbc Mbie fllefisagc for ftloDern manbooD 

From the character of Abraham's history- 
it is clear that the same method was fol- 
lowed, and followed for the same purpose, — 
a selective method, for the purpose, not 
so much of narrating history as of uttering 
spiritual truth by presenting a man in ac- 
tion. The inspired writer gives such inci- 
dents of Abraham's life as exhibit and illus- 
trate those qualities of character and con- 
duct which should inhere in and be exhibited 
by the " Chosen People " and by the people 
of God in all time. 

It is important to observe that this select- 
ive process is above all others the one for 
which inspiration is required and revelation 
imperative. We say truly that the Bible is 
a revelation of God and is inspired by the 
Holy Spirit. But it requires neither inspira- 
tion nor revelation to record ordinary every- 
day history. Any one able to write, and 
with intelligence, can do that. On the other 
hand, to see as Abraham saw and do as 
Abraham did requires revelation. And to 
sift out of Abraham's life the things that 
are God-revealed and God-inspired and put 
them into the best form for the teaching of 
mankind, requires the inspiration of the 
Holy Spirit. 

94 



Bbcabam, tbe £ilan wbo ^bei^eO 0oD 

2, Several Narratives 

(i) Scholars tell us that the history of 
Abraham as it stands in the Bible is made 
up of several narratives woven together. 
These narratives they have separated and 
placed in columns side by side, as the dif- 
ferent lives of Christ are placed side by 
side in a harmony of the Gospels. Indeed, 
the well-known character of the Gospels 
furnishes the best illustration of what schol- 
ars claim to be the character of much of 
the Old Testament history. Of the Gospels 
the following facts are well known: 

fl. We have not one history of Christ, but 
four. 

h. Each Gospel historian writes from his 
own angle of view. In John's Gospel, for 
example, there is more of the mystical than 
in either of the others. On account of his 
mystical turn of mind, John selects out of 
all the teachings of Christ his most mystical 
sayings. 

c. Each Gospel historian writes for a 
certain class, and embodies in his Gospel 
what will most effectively appeal to his read- 
ers. Matthew, who writes for Jews, places 
his emphasis on the fulfilment of prophecy, 

95 



tTbe Xiblc aiceetiQc for modern fHanbood 

which was convincing to Jews ; while Mark, 
who writes for Gentiles, places his emphasis 
on miracles, which were convincing to Gen- 
tiles. 

d. Each of the Gospel writers, while 
duplicating in some respect the others, has 
material peculiar to himself. 

e. As Luke states in his preface, his Gos- 
pel was composed with earlier accounts be- 
fore him. 

/. At several times during Christian his- 
tory the four Gospels have been woven to- 
gether into a consecutive account of Christ's 
life, and the impression of such an account 
is exceedingly powerful. 

If now the separate Gospels of Matthew, 
Mark, Luke, and John should be lost and 
scholars should undertake to separate this 
interwoven record into its four original 
parts, they would be undertaking to do for 
the New Testament history precisely w4iat 
scholars have undertaken to do for the 
Old Testament history. 

(2) Many scholars affirm that as many 
as four histories of Abraham have been 
joined together in the Bible narrative; that 
some of these were written by prophets 
and others by priests; and that they bear 

96 



Bbrabam, tbe (Han wbo ^beiseD 0oO 

different dates. After separating these ac- 
counts they claim to find to be true of 
them what is true of the Gospels : 

a. Each author writes from his own 
view-point, the prophet setting forth spir- 
itual truth and dwelling little upon historic 
details ; while the priest is zealous for what- 
ever pertains to his priestly office. 

h. Accounts are found to vary accord- 
ing to the times and conditions in which 
they were written, since at different times 
both the people and their needs were dif- 
ferent. 

c. Each writer has material peculiar to 
himself. For example, Abraham's rescue 
of Lot and his deception of Pharaoh in 
regard to his wife do not occur in the earlier 
narratives. 

(3) The results of the combination of 
these Old Testament narratives are pre- 
cisely the same as the results of combin- 
ing the Gospel narratives : 

a. There is some reduplication — a com- 
mon fact in the Old Testament. 

h. On account of the mixed materials 
originally written for different purposes 
there is sometimes manifest confusion of 
purpose. 

G 97 



tTbe JBiblc tSlceenQe for flloDetn manbooD 

c. Different parts of narratives are of 
unequal value for spiritual instruction, 
since the facts which they set forth are of 
unequal importance. 

J. The Early Prophetic Narratives 

(i) With so much of explanation let us 
now consider those incidents in Abraham's 
life recorded by the early prophets of the 
Hebrew people. They comprise : a. The 
call of Abraham and his journey to Canaan. 

b. The separation of Abraham from Lot. 

c. The destruction of Sodom, d. The 
promise to Abraham of the birth of Isaac. 
e. The expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael. 
/. The birth and sacrifice of Isaac. 

(2) For the purposes of teaching, these 
incidents may be reduced to three. The 
destruction of Sodom simply emphasizes 
the folly of Lot in choosing the beautiful 
valley with the wicked city. The teaching 
import of the incident, therefore, is a con- 
stituent part of the lesson taught by the 
separation of Abraham and Lot. The fore- 
telling of Isaac's birth emphasizes the de- 
sire of Abraham for a son and heir; and 
the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael em- 
phasizes the aft'ection of Abraham and 

98 



BDrabam, tbe fllan wbo Obc^e^ (3oD 

Sarah for Isaac. Both incidents, there- 
fore, simply set out in strong relief Abra- 
ham's incomparable renunciation in the 
sacrifice of Isaac. 

This leaves us three clear, strong, and 
commanding incidents, which embody three 
calls to Abraham. First, the call to leave 
his home and go forth, " not knowing 
whither he went " ; secondly, the call to give 
Lot his choice of the best pastures, upon 
which seemingly his own worldly success 
depended; and thirdly, the call to sacrifice 
Isaac, for whom he had so deeply yearned, 
so long prayed, and who now was his only 
visible hope for the future. 

4. Spiritual Teaching 

(i) In these three calls of God to Abra- 
ham there is one central lesson, a lesson 
which stirs the soul with increasing power 
as one passes from call to call, until the 
great climax is reached in the sacrifice of 
Isaac. 

It is hard to leave home ; but harder still, 
after having left home in the hope of bet- 
tering one's fortune, to relinquish to an- 
other the best of one's worldly prospects; 
and unspeakably harder than either is it to 

99 



Zbc Miblc aicss^QC for flloDecn ftlanbooD 

sacrifice on the altar one's only child, espe- 
cially when that child has been the object 
of the prayers of a lifetime and is the only 
visible hope of all that is dearest in the 
future. 

In these three calls of Jehovah to Abra- 
ham the fundamental fact is the exhibition 
of a man obeying God, a man not inquiring 
the reason, not shirking the cost, not com- 
plaining of the requirement, but obeying. 
On the basis of such obedience his very 
name was changed from Abram to Abra- 
ham, because on the basis of such obedience 
he was to be made a world-wide blessing, 
the father of a spiritual multitude. 

Such an exhibition reveals the heart of 
religion, for obedience is faith in action, 
the evidence of love, and the badge of 
loyalty. Obedience to Jehovah was what 
made Abraham the father of the faithful, 
the progenitor of a chosen people, the 
founder of a spiritual seed. Because Abra- 
ham was obedient God could promise him : 
" I will bless thee, and make thy name 
great; and be thou a blessing: . . and in 
thee shall all the families of the earth be 
blessed" (Gen. 12:2, 3). 

The fundamental character of obedience 

100 



Bbrabam, tbe fnlan wbo ©beiscD (3o& 

is shown by our Lord when in talking to 
the disobedient Jews, who claimed to be 
Abraham's seed, he said, " If ye w^ere 
Abraham's children, ye would do the works 
of Abraham" (John 8:39). That is, ye 
would obey God. Because Christ himself 
was obedient the Spirit said to him, " Thou 
art my beloved Son, in thee I am well 
pleased" (Mark i:ii). Indeed, Christ 
made the excellency of his own life obedi- 
ence when he said : " My meat is to do the 
will of him that sent me, and to accomplish 
his work" (John 4:34). In obedience lay 
Christ's supreme victory when in Geth- 
semane he prayed, " Nevertheless, not as 
I will, but as thou wilt" (Matt. 26:39). 
Obedience! That is the one thing in every 
life which renders it well pleasing to God, 
and enables God to say, " I will bless thee 
and make thee a blessing." 

(2) This fundamental teaching will ap- 
pear in greater fulness as we note care- 
fully its different elements : 

a. God called Abraham. Nothing is said 
as to the method of the call. Did God 
speak from heaven in an audible voice? 
Did he send an angel? Did he speak to 
Abraham's conscience by strong impression 

lOI 



Zbc Xiblc fllcsease tor flloDern manbooD 

of duty? In regard to such things nothing 
is indicated. 

When Abraham and Lot separated, it is 
not sipecially mentioned that God called 
Abraham to be so generous. Their herds- 
men were quarreling over pastures and 
water. That this was an unseemly thing 
between brethren Abraham did not ques- 
tion. To his nephew he said : " Let there be 
no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, 
and between my herdsmen and thy herds- 
men " (Gen. 13:8). As far as the record 
shows, we see here a man simply acting in 
a worldly matter from a high sense of 
honor. Abraham did not claim all his rights, 
but acted the part of a high-minded, noble 
man. Who can doubt God's call to such 
action ? 

It seems strange to us that God should 
call Abraham to sacrifice Isaac upon the 
altar. But, as formerly noted, these nar- 
ratives lie imbedded in the ideas of their 
day. And in ancient times human sacri- 
fices were not uncommon among many peo- 
ples. That the Hebrews did not think such 
sacrifices wrong, but sometimes a duty, is 
attested by the sacrifice of Tepthah's daugh- 
ter. And whatever the circumstances in 

102 



Bbrabam, tbe fHan wbo ©DeseD (5o& 

Isaac's case, none of the details of which 
are given, Abraham believed that it was 
his duty to sacrifice his son, and there was 
no hesitancy in performance. Moreover, 
when God stayed Abraham's hand from 
slaying Isaac and pointed him to a ram 
caught in a thicket, a step was taken from 
human sacrifice to the sacrifice of animals. 
The only question with Abraham was, 
" Does God call me ? " His immediate and 
unquestioning obedience was the founda- 
tion of his religious character. And no- 
where in the Old Testament is the duty 
and the beauty of obedience set forth with 
so much persuasiveness and charm as in 
this incident. 

God calls every one as truly as he called 
Abraham and, for aught we know, in the 
same way. God convicts of sin, makes 
duty plain, shows the path of righteousness 
and honor, brings us to the place where we 
know assuredly what his will is. Our an- 
swer is the response of our character to 
God's character, and we become like him in 
character only as we are obedient. 

b. Abraham had supreme regard for the 
spiritual. The writer to the Hebrews says 
that in leaving his home Abraham " looked 

103 



Zbc Mblc fulcssase tor modern fllanbooD 

for the city which hath the foundations, 
whose builder and maker is God " (Heb. 
ii:io). However we interpret this sen- 
tence, that to which it points is certainly 
spiritual, a city that God is building. This, 
rather than material things, was what the 
Pilgrim Fathers were seeking. They de- 
sired homes, farms, cattle, riches ; but some- 
thing else they desired more than they de- 
sired these. Their supreme aim was a city 
that hath foundation, a city where should be 
found righteous men, freedom, charity, 
honor, truth — foundations these of perma- 
nent character and permanent society. This 
as yet unseen but permanent city, God was 
building by their hands in America, even 
as he laid its deeper foundations by the 
hands of Abraham of old. 

In his relation to Lot Abraham preferred 
peace and brotherly love to more pastures, 
more sheep, more cattle, more wells of 
water, and strife and contention therewith. 
In a word, he placed the spiritual first, pre- 
ferring righteousness to material prosperity. 
When he went into the mountain to build 
the altar and sacrifice his son, he was simply 
laying all his most cherished hopes for this 
world upon the altar of his convictions. 

104 



Bbrabam» the (Han wbo Obc^c^ 0od 

What does it mean for one to prefer the 
spiritual? Surely not simply to pray, read 
the Bible, and attend church. These are helps 
to the spiritual. Preference for the spir- 
itual is preference for righteousness. It is 
to prefer the truth to the temporary advan- 
tage of a lie; justice to the gain of injus- 
tice; noble conduct to the worldly gain of 
ignoble conduct; the manhood which obeys 
the law to dollars earned by breaking the law. 

The test of character is the same for us 
as it was for Abraham. Only those who 
prefer spiritual excellencies to worldly ad- 
vantage can God bless and make a blessing, 
and only such hold the promise of the 
future. Their spiritual progeny are to be 
like the stars of heaven and like the sands 
of the seashore for multitude. The prom- 
ise that God will bless Abraham and make 
him a blessing is a prophecy as well as a 
promise for Abraham's day, which receives 
more comprehensive utterance in the words 
of John : " The kingdom of the world is be- 
come the kingdom of our Lord, and of his 
Christ; and he shall reign for ever and 
ever" (Rev. ii: 15). 

c. Abraham never hesitated to pay what 
it cost to obey God. 

105 



Zbc :fBible nQesaagc tor filo2)etn manboot) 

In Jacob we shall see a struggle. In 
Moses we shall witness objections and ex- 
cuses. But in Abraham everything but in- 
stant and implicit obedience drops out of 
sight. He leaves his home without a mur- 
mur, gives the best pastures to Lot without 
an objection, proceeds to sacrifice Isaac 
without a protest. The cost of obedience 
he never counted. God's commands he 
never questioned. 

The fundamental character of such a 
teaching is evident from the way it touches 
every human heart, for it strikes deep into 
the weakness of every son of Adam. We 
are ever counting the cost of obedience, 
complaining of what we have to relinquish, 
and finding righteousness too expensive. 
We forget that this is downright skepticism, 
indeed, that it is a positive form of in- 
fidelity. We forget that in counting the 
cost we are distrusting God, and setting 
our own short-sighted judgment in opposi- 
tion to his judgment. We forget that 
counting the cost in a grudging way is re- 
bellion against the divine will. Abraham 
believed God, and trusted him, and there- 
fore the cost of obedience was never 
counted. 

lo6 



Bbtabam, tbc fllan wbo ©bc^eO (3oO 

(3) The inevitable conclusion to which 
the life of Abraham leads is that it pays 
to obey God. 

a. This fact is made immediately evident 
in the choice of Lot. He coveted the rich 
and well-watered valley of the Jordan, not 
regarding the wickedness of Sodom. The 
narrative leaves the wicked city enveloped 
in lurid flames and Lot fleeing from the 
valley to the mountains, having lost his wife 
and having left behind all his flocks and 
herds ; whereas Abraham is seen dying in a 
good old age and leaving a goodly inherit- 
ance to Isaac, through whom God's prom- 
ises for the future are to be realized. 

b. As a matter of historic fact God's 
promise to Abraham, that he should possess 
the land, was literally fulfilled; for in the 
time of David and Solomon one, standing 
upon the very mountain where God made 
the promise to the " father of the faithful," 
could have looked eastward, westward, 
northward, southward, upon hills and val- 
leys every one of which was in possession 
of Abraham's descendants and was ruled 
over by the King of Israel. 

But the promise to Abraham has a larger 
fulfilment. As Paul teaches, those who are 

107 



Zbe M\)lc tilcB6tLQc foe ttloDern manbooD 

of the faith of Abraham are the children 
of the promise. (Rom. 4: 16.) And to-day, 
as all are aware, the Christian nations pos- 
sess the gardens of the earth and the 
granaries of the world. They control the 
world's commerce and are the heirs of its 
wealth. 

c. God's promise to Abraham of the mul- 
tiplied seed has been even more signally 
fulfilled than that of multiplied possessions. 
One need not trace the history of the He- 
brews until in Christ's time Israel's sons 
are in every large city; nor need one point 
out the fact that to-day they are citizens 
of every land and nation. It is of greater 
significance to point to the larger interpre- 
tation of the promise in Jesus Christ and to 
recognize that the spiritual seed of Abra- 
ham is to-day in numbers like the stars of 
heaven and like the sand that is beside the 
seashore for multitude. And it is of still 
greater moment to remember that through 
all the centuries God has blessed this spir- 
itual seed and made it a blessing and, as 
was promised, in Abraham all the nations 
of the earth have been blessed. It pays to 
obey God. 



108 



IDII 

Jacob, tbe fiHan wbo Congueret) 
bi2 JBciriQ Conquereb 

Genesis, Cbapters Uwentigsseven to Ubirtc-tbree 



m 



I. Jacob's Life 

JACOB and Esau were twin sons of 
Isaac and Rebekah. Esau became " a 
cunning hunter," while Jacob was " a plain 
man, dwelling in tents." 

(i) When these twin brothers were 
grown, Esau returned one day from hunt- 
ing and found Jacob 'preparing pottage. 
Being faint from hunger, he asked his 
brother for a portion of the food. Jacob, 
discerning the opportunity for which he had 
been watching, replied that he would ex- 
change his pottage for Esau's birthright. 
The bargain was soon concluded and the 
meal eaten. Just what the birthright sig- 
nified at this time is not stated. In later 
times it came to embrace (a) a double por- 
tion of goods, (b) the headship of the tribe, 
and (c) the priestly office in the family. 

(2) When Isaac was about to die he 
called his favorite son, Esau, bade him take 

III 



^be JSible mcdaaae for modern fllanboob 

his bow and arrows, and go to the field for 
game. The game, when secured, he was in- 
structed to prepare as his father liked it 
best, after which he was to receive his 
father's blessing. 

Rebekah, overhearing Isaac's instructions 
to Esau, hastily called her favorite son, 
Jacob, told him what she had heard, and 
bade him go immediately to the flock and 
fetch two kids of the goats. These she 
skilfully prepared to taste like venison. 
Then, since Esau was a hairy man, she 
clothed Jacob in hairy garments, and sent 
him with the savory dish to his father, 
meanwhile instructing him to pretend that 
he was Esau. Jacob was afraid that he 
would be discovered and incur his father's 
curse, but the insistent mother said, " Upon 
me be thy curse, my son; only obey my 
voice" (Gen. 27:13). The deception was 
successful, and Jacob received the fatherly 
blessing intended for Esau. When Esau 
returned from the field and learned what 
had been done, he cried in anger and re- 
solved that when his father was dead he 
would kill Jacob. 

(3) Rebekah, learning of Esau's threat to 
kill his brother, complained to Isaac that 

112 



Sucobf the man wbo ConqueceD 

her life was filled with sorrow on account 
of Esau's marriages with women of the 
Canaanites, and requested Isaac to send 
Jacob to her father's home at Haran, where 
her brother Laban lived, in order that Jacob 
might secure one of his daughters for a 
wife. " If Jacob," said she, " take a wife 
of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of 
the daughters of the land, what good shall 
my Hfe do me?" (Gen. 27:46.) At the 
request of Rebekah, Isaac sent Jacob to the 
home of Laban. He did not know, how- 
ever, that as Jacob went he fled for his life 
from the enraged Esau. 

Arriving at Bethel weary, Jacob pillowed 
his head upon a stone and slept. But God 
spoke to him in dreams, and he awoke in 
a fright, for he thought he had got away 
from God. In surprise he said : " Surely 
Jehovah is in this place. . . How dreadful is 
this place! . . the gate of heaven" (Gen. 
28: 16, 17). Then Jacob bargained, agree- 
ing that if prospered he would serve Jeho- 
vah. And having registered this vow, he 
hastened eastward to the home of his 
mother's brother. 

In Bible narratives the wells where flocks 
were watered were often fraught with 

H 113 



^be M\)lc (MlceeaQc for modern fllanbood 

destiny. At a well the servant of Abraham 
found Rebekah, whom he brought to the 
tent of his master to be Isaac's wife. At a 
well in the southern wilderness Moses de- 
fended the priest's daughters against the 
rudeness of the shepherds, and finally mar- 
ried one of them. So, also, it happened to 
Jacob. At the well where Laban's flocks 
were watered he met Rachel and, after four- 
teen years, she became his wife. The beau- 
tiful story of their courtship and marriage 
is a long one, running through several chap- 
ters. Seven years Jacob served for her sis- 
ter, Leah, and afterward seven other years 
for Rachel. Meanwhile, by shrewd trickery, 
he became possessed of large flocks and 
herds, and finally, owing to Laban's dis- 
satisfaction with his methods, was compelled 
to flee. He was now like one between the 
devil and the deep sea. He could not turn 
back to Laban, whom he had tricked, and 
he was afraid to go forward to Esau, whom 
he had wronged. 

(4) As Jacob journeyed toward his old 
home in Canaan, Esau came to meet him 
with four hundred men. Surely now, he 
thought, the penalty must be paid for 
stealing Esau's blessing. His wits, how- 

114 



^acob, tbe tman wbo Conauercb 

ever, did not desert him. His flocks and 
servants he divided into two bands, plan- 
ning that if Esau captured one, the other 
at least would be left him. At evening, 
after placing his wives and children across 
the brook Jabbok, he returned to spend the 
night alone, alone with God. All that night, 
even till the break of day, Jacob wrestled 
with an unnamed stranger. No one need 
tell us that there was wrestling that night. 
Every one knows what takes plac^ when a 
sinning man in his extremity spends the 
night alone with his God. After that night 
of wrestling Jacob was called Israel, the 
contender with God, the wrestler against 
God. 

That struggle in the dark presents a weird 
picture to the imagination, and if we inter- 
pret it literally, we are in no little confusion 
as to whom belonged the victory. Jacob 
was wrestling with unflinching determina- 
tion, and seemed about to prevail when 
the unknown antagonist simply touched the 
hollow of his thigh and he was disabled, 
and afterward lay clinging to his conqueror 
pleading, " I will not let thee go, except 
thou bless me." After the mysterious 
wrestler blessed him we are astonished to 

115 



^bc aSiblc tlle06ase tot flloDern ftlanbooD 

have it said that this conquered and pros- 
trate cripple " prevailed." But so it was. 
When Jacob, conquered and prostrate, said 
to his conqueror, " I will not let thee go, 
except thou bless me" (Gen. 32:26), that 
was the hour of his victory. Jacob con- 
quered by being conquered. He conquered 
himself when he was conquered of God. 
That is the condition of self -conquest for 
every man, and there is no other. The 
issue of this wrestle is the climax of the 
Jacob narrative, and its teaching is evident, 
a teaching for individuals and for nations 
and for all time. The man who conquers is 
the man whom God conquers, and the man 
who defeats God defeats himself. 

2, Elements of the narrative 

In the light of this crucial struggle all 
else in this narrative finds luminous inter- 
pretation. 

(i) Look now at the character of these 
brothers. Esau was an easy-going, hale fel- 
low. He lived for the pleasure of the pass- 
ing day. Having no regard for family tra- 
ditions or hopes, he married women of 
other nations. Lacking in spirituality, the 
religion of his own people was no more to 

116 



5acobt tbe man wbo ConaueteD 

him than the idolatry of the Canaanites. 
Indeed, when he estabHshed his home, re- 
ligion did not enter into the consideration. 
Because he was the oldest son, to him be- 
longed the birthright, which among the 
Hebrews gave a man opportunity and put 
into his hands the power to mold the future 
of his people. Yet Esau sold this ines- 
timable inheritance for a mess of pottage. 
What an animal sort of man he was, that 
he could not endure hunger! History 
counts men by the score who, though com- 
pelled to live on crusts, never flinched from 
the pursuit of life's divine purpose. But 
here is a man of animal appetites. With 
him all great opportunities and high pros- 
pects melt into insignificance before physical 
hunger. Not only in the literature of the 
Bible itself, but in the literature of all 
time, Esau stands forth as the animal man 
placed over against the spiritual man, as 
the man who lived for the day and the 
present satisfaction placed over against 
the man who makes himself the master of 
his life, and who directs life's endeavors 
toward worthy ends. We are dealing here 
with more than an individual. We are deal- 
ing with a type, a type which the prophet 

117 



Xlbe JBtble ttlessa^e tor ftlo^ern fllanbooO 

sets before the eyes of all the world as an 
example of supreme folly. 

(2) Jacob is a type of precisely opposite 
character. The contrast is emphasized by 
the fact that Jacob and Esau are twins and 
that even in birth Jacob showed a disposi- 
tion to supplant his brother. 

We have already seen that Bible history 
is sifted history and selected history. All 
history used for purposes of teaching is 
also more or less idealised history. One 
cannot imagine a stronger contrast than 
twins of such diametrically opposite char- 
acter as Jacob and Esau. They seem to 
be set forth not only as individuals, but as 
types that stand for two great and distinct 
classes which have ever been in the world 
and are in the world to-day. They point 
to the animalism of the one and the spir- 
itual aspirations of the other. 

The prophetic writer shows his insight 
not only into human nature, but also into the 
ways of God, when for the purposes of 
teaching he selects not those incidents in 
Jacob's life which show him a saint, if in- 
deed such could be found, but those inci- 
dents which show him a sinner, and a wil- 
ful and deliberate sinner, as shown by the 

118 



3acob. tbe man wbo <Ionauece5 

following facts: When Jacob defrauded 
Esau of his father's blessing he said to his 
mother that if he were caught in his de- 
ception his father would curse him as a 
deceiver, and he knew that the curse would 
be merited. In his guilt he fled from his 
brother and, as he thought, from God. Be- 
cause of trickery and deceit he had to flee 
also from Laban. And as he turned his 
face toward home, though it was twenty 
years afterward, his guilty conscience smote 
him for the wrong he had done Esau. 
Jacob's conduct cannot be justified on any 
ground of oriental ideas or morals. And 
in the narrative itself there is no effort to 
justify it; but, on the other hand, a laying 
bare of the sins of this wrestler against 
God without palliation or excuse. 

In spite of his sins, however, Jacob had 
spiritual aspirations. He wanted the bless- 
ing of the first-born and ran the risk of 
his father's curse to secure it. He wanted 
God's blessing, though he thought to gain 
it by bargaining. Not only did Jacob have 
spiritual aspirations, but he had resolution 
and determination as well. In a word, there 
was something in Jacob on which God 
could build. 

119 



^be JSiblc VilcseaQc tor fllodcm fHanbood 

(3) As one reads the narrative of these 
twin brothers he instinctively takes the part 
of Esau. Our hearts are naturally chival- 
rous, and we espouse the cause of the one 
who is wronged. Beyond question, Esau 
was wronged. We are surprised that God 
seems to bless Jacob, the wrong-doer, more 
than Esau. But if we read the narrative 
again with our eyes upon this particular 
point we shall see that God did not bless 
Jacob more than Esau. Esau is shown to 
be blessed with so many flocks that he re- 
fused to accept the present that Jacob prof- 
fered him upon the occasion of their meet- 
ing saying to him that he already had 
enough. Esau was blessed with all worldly 
blessings, and these were the only bless- 
ings to which he aspired, the only ones that 
he was capable of appreciating or utilizing. 

When the prophetic writer has made 
plain the characters of these twin brothers 
he simply dismisses Esau from his narra- 
tive, except that he traces to him the Edom- 
ites. His life the author does not follow 
as he does Jacob's, for his purpose is to 
show God's struggle with a sinner who has 
spiritual aspirations. It would be profitless 
to follow Esau's life. In him there is noth- 

120 



5acol), tbe Illan wbo Conquered 

ing to build a spiritual future upon. Shall 
a father send to school a son who refuses 
education? or set up in business a son who 
is too shiftless to do business? How shall 
God build a spiritual future upon one who 
lives for the pleasure of the present? The 
discernment as well as the purpose of the 
writer is shown in that he dismisses the 
easy-going Esau from his narrative and fol- 
lows the aspiring sinner Jacob. 

(4) Does it seem strange to us that God 
follows and seeks to guide and bless a sin- 
ner like Jacob ? Yet God is continually do- 
ing this. He does not abandon the sinning 
man. He makes his rain to fall on just and 
unjust, and often we see a sinner flourish- 
ing " like a green bay tree." Wlien we were 
enemies against God Christ died for us. 
The voice of God is in the soul of every 
sinning man and calls him to the highest of 
which he is capable. The Spirit seeks to 
lead the sinning man into the paths of obedi- 
ence, and on the basis of obedience God 
builds the man's future and marks out his 
service and his destiny. God's ways with 
Jacob, therefore, are typical of his ways 
with all men. 

(5) It should be said in passing that 

121 



Zbe Mble fiHeggaae (or filoOcrn fllanbooD 

these typical men, Jacob and Esau, doubt- 
less have a national significance. Not only 
was Esau the father of the Edomites, but 
also typical of the Edomites, and the Edom- 
ites were in a sense typical of idolatrous 
nations. History shows abundantly that in 
idolatrous nations there has not been that 
keen sense of God, that splendid aspiration 
for higher things, that hungering and thirst- 
ing after righteousness, and that persistent 
climbing to diviner heights, which have 
characterized either the natural or spiritual 
seed of Israel. 

On the other hand, Jacob is a perfect 
type of the nation which sprang from his 
loins. In all of its history that nation has 
been characterized by Jacob's qualities of 
character: The same regard for the future, 
the same high aspiration, the same shrewd- 
ness in dealing, the same endeavor to wrest 
God's blessings from his hands without fol- 
lowing divine methods, the same long, hard 
struggle with God before being conquered 
by God, 

Is not Jacob typical also of the " spir- 
itual seed " ? What a wrestling against God 
there has been in all the Christian cen- 
turies! What a difficult task it has been 

122 



5aco&, tbe man wbo ConauercD 

for God thoroughly to subdue even Chris- 
tians to himself! The church of Jesus 
Christ can indeed say that it has had noble 
aspirations, but every century has seen the 
lopping off of some sin. Only gradually is 
the church conquering by being conquered 
of God. World types these twin brothers 
are, both of individuals and of nations, 
types even of world movements that lie 
deeper than national life and overstep all 
national bounds. 

(6) How could a man with Jacob's meth- 
ods — ^methods of deceit, trickery, and fraud 
— entertain such high aspirations? We 
should expect the one to exclude the other. 
We may answer by asking a larger ques- 
tion. In Christ's time how could the scribes 
and Pharisees, who had become hypocrites 
— outwardly fair enough, but inwardly like 
" putrid sepulchers " — continue to look for 
the Christ and aspire to the spiritual leader- 
ship of the world? It is one of the stran- 
gest mysteries of life that for a time spir- 
itual aspirations can dwell together with 
evil practices. But there comes an hour, 
and it is the crucial hour of life, when God 
struggles with a man, and he is either con- 
quered by God and the evil of his life put 

123 



tibe JSiblc {JflcsBaQc fot flloDcrn ^aubooD 

away, or the spiritual aspiration, however 
long it may linger as a dream, ceases to be a 
power in his life. The sin must go or the 
best that is in the man must perish. If the 
sin remain, it drags the man down. If God 
conquers, the man conquers and enters 
upon an enlarging future wherein the best 
in his life is brought to its flower and fruit- 
age. 

As a nation the Jews came to their su- 
preme testing-time in dealing with Jesus 
Christ. They crucified him, and from tliat 
hour their spiritual aspirations have been 
waning, their consciousness of a mission 
in the world has been fading out, and the 
door of the future, instead of opening to 
enlarged national life, is closing ever more 
inevitably upon them. 

Jacob came to his crisis in that all-night 
struggle with God at the Jabbok. His 
methods of life must change or his aspira- 
tions are vain. The first must go or the 
second must fade out. He must be con- 
quered of God or he is a defeated man. 
But the wrestler against God submitted at 
last, and by submitting prevailed. From 
that crucial night Jacob was a different man. 
There is found in him no more of the old 

124 



5acob» tbe fllan wbo Conquercb 

methods; but, on the other hand, he be- 
came truly a prince of God. 

(7) We are not different from Jacob. 
Years ago I knew a young man who had 
various methods of cheating the railroads, 
so that he traveled for nothing. He was 
a professing Christian, yet this practice 
went on for some years, strange excuses 
being found to salve his conscience. But 
there came a time when the dishonest prac- 
tice had to be put out of his life or he had 
to cease aspiring to be a Christian. The 
strange fact is that even for a time the evil 
practice and the noble aspiration could dwell 
together in the same person, but they did. 

I knew another young man of good home 
and Christian parents who was converted 
early in life and began studying for the 
ministry. After a time he became careless 
of his religion and fell into evil ways. Yet, 
not for a moment did he relinquish his 
purpose of living a Christian life nor of 
entering the ministry. But there came a 
time of struggle with God, when the evil 
had to be put away or his aspiration re- 
linquished and his purpose abandoned. 
Happily, his wrestle resulted like Jacob's 
and his life was one of great usefulness. 

125 



XLbc Mblc tllegsage tor fnot)em ftlanboo5 

The noble aspiration and the sinful life, 
with God fostering the one and wrestling 
against the other, are for a longer or shorter 
period true of us all. But God's Spirit 
does not always strive with men, and ere 
we are aware the crucial time of life is 
past and we stand defeated. Our victory 
is in God's victory over us. We prevail 
when God prevails with us. This is the les- 
son of Jacob, that we conquer ourselves 
when we are conquered by God, and we 
possess the future when God possesses us. 



126 



ID11 

3o8epb, tbe (5o5*accompan(e^ 
(Ran 

Oeneefs, Cbapteis Ubivtssecvcn to ^ift^ 



VII 



I. The Narrative 

JACOB had twelve sons, from whom de- 
scended the twelve tribes of Israel. Of 
these twelve sons Joseph and Benjamin 
were favorites of their father, since they 
were the children of Rachel, his favorite 
wife. The father's partiality was especially 
shown to Joseph, whom he clothed in the 
long-sleeved, many-colored tunic, which 
nobles were accustomed to wear and which 
was better suited to a life of luxury than 
to that of a shepherd. Such favoritism 
naturally excited the jealousy of Joseph's 
brethren, and to jealousy was added hate 
when Joseph himself innocently related to 
them his dreams, in which they, and even 
his father, were represented as doing him 
obeisance. So bitter did the resentment of 
Joseph's brethren become that on a day 
when he visited them in the fields with their 
sheep they seized him and cast him into 

I 129 



^be Mblc tflcBeagc tor flloDern ttlanbood 

a " bottle-shaped cistern," and for a time 
left him there to die, but upon second 
thought they drew him out and sold him for 
twenty pieces of silver to a merchant cara- 
van going to Egypt. Then, taking his tunic 
of many colors, they dipped it in the blood 
of a goat and carried it to his father, who 
thereafter mourned his favorite son as dead. 

Arriving in Egypt, the merchants sold 
Joseph to Potiphar, chief executioner to 
Pharaoh, who purchased him for a house- 
servant. So trustworthy and efficient did 
the Hebrew boy prove, however, that he 
was soon made sole ruler of Potiphar's 
house. In the absence of the master, 
Potiphar's wife looked upon the splendid 
young overseer with lustful eyes and sought 
to entice him to sin, but being baffled in her 
design she turned against him, accused him 
falsely, and had him thrown into prison. 

But Joseph by faithfulness and ef- 
ficiency again won his way and was soon 
made overseer of the prison. In one of the 
wards were confined two servants of the 
king, his cupbearer and his baker. Each 
of these men on the same night had dreams, 
which Joseph interpreted and the interpre- 
tations came true. As his dreams indicated, 

130 



5o0cpb, tbe (5oD*accompanieD ftlan 

the baker was hanged and the cupbearer 
was restored to his office. 

Two years afterward Pharaoh had a 
dream which greatly troubled him, and 
among all the wise men of Egypt there was 
none who could interpret it. Then the cup- 
bearer, remembering that Joseph had inter- 
preted his dream, told Pharaoh of his 
prisoner's power, whereupon Joseph was at 
once summoned into the presence of the 
king. 

Pharaoh's dream Joseph easily inter- 
preted, and found it to signify that there 
were to be seven years of plenty, followed 
by seven years of famine. After the in- 
terpretation had been given Joseph ventured 
the suggestion that Pharaoh place a wise 
man over all Egypt to collect, during the 
years of plenty, grain sufficient for the 
years of famine. '' There is none so wise 
as thou," said Pharaoh, and at his com- 
mand Joseph was made first lord of Egypt, 
and was commanded to carry out the plan 
which he himself had suggested. 

The famine came as predicted and ex- 
tended not only throughout Egypt, but to 
Canaan, where Jacob lived with his eleven 
sons. At length Jacob was compelled to 

131 



tibe :il9ib[e mcdaage tor filobern manbooD 

send his sons down to Egypt for com, and 
Joseph at once recognized his brothers, but 
they did not recognize him. He made pre- 
tense of dealing harshly with them, and 
compelled them to promise that they would 
return, bringing Benjamin, Joseph's only 
full brother, with them. 

The story of Joseph making himself 
known to his brethren runs through several 
chapters. To condense the account would 
be to mar it. Every word should be read. 
When Joseph had concealed his identity as 
long as he could he bade all others go out 
from him, and when alone with his brothers 
made himself known to them, saying, " I 
am Joseph your brother, whom ve sold into 

Egypt." 

Pharaoh, being informed that Joseph's 
brothers had come, gave command that 
Joseph's father and brethren with their 
families and flocks be brought from Canaan 
to Egypt. Here they were cared for during 
all the years of famine and until the death 
of Joseph. 

2. Character of the Narrative 

(i) After the crucial struggle in Jacob's 
life, noted in the last chapter, the Bible 

132 



506epb, tbe (BoD^accompanfeD fnian 

narrative does not follow Jacob, except in- 
cidentally. Like a stream in the desert, 
which sinks beneath the sand and then 
comes to the surface here and there in 
oases, the narrative spreads out and records 
the doings, or rather the misdoings, of 
Jacob's sons and daughters, after which 
the scattered parts of the narrative flow 
together again and concentrate on Joseph. 
While in all these narratives we recog- 
nize a historic purpose, it is important to 
observe that we are dealing with prophetic 
history, history written by prophets of God 
with the specific purpose of showing God's 
relation to men and the working out of 
God's purposes through men. The pro- 
phetic method was to show God's relation 
to individuals, and the individuals chosen 
are usually presented to us in strong con- 
trast with other individuals of very different 
character and conduct. For example, Abra- 
ham, the man of right choice, is placed in 
strong contrast with Lot, the man of wrong 
choice. Jacob, the man of worth ful char- 
acter is strongly contrasted with Esau, the 
man of worthless character. And in the 
Joseph narrative, Joseph, the man of right 
purpose and faithful conduct, stands in 

133 



XLbc Mb\c message tor fBloDern fnanbooD 

strongest contrast with his brothers, who 
are men of wrong purpose and shameful 
conduct. 

This contrast is specially marked in the 
case of Judah. After the prophet has 
traced Joseph down into Egypt and is ready 
to present to the reader his pure character 
in the face of the temptation of Potiphar's 
wife, he interrupts his narrative for a mo- 
ment in order to insert that unsavory chap- 
ter (Gen. 38) about Judah going down to 
Hirah, the Adullamite, a chapter which 
some think wholly out of place, interrupting, 
as it seems, the beautiful, sweet, and pure 
story of Joseph. The careful reader will 
observe that this Judah chapter is not 
dropped just anywhere into the story of 
Joseph. First, Joseph is very carefully and 
studiedly followed down into Egypt. In 
the next section of the narrative the pro- 
phetic writer is to place before us Joseph's 
great temptation, for resisting which God 
is with him and prospers him. But before 
he gives us this section he introduces the 
abominable Judah chapter, in which Judah 
condemns himself for the sin so prevalent 
in the oriental world and which constitutes 
Joseph's temptation. With what consum- 

134 



5o0cpb, tbe (3oC)*accompanfeD rtlan 

mate literary art and with what true pro- 
phetic instinct the writer makes this black 
Judah incident, upon which falls only con- 
demnation, the background of the white 
Joseph conduct, upon which God's blessing 
so abundantly rests! 

(2) Many scholars assure us that while 
the Joseph narrative has in it an ideal ele- 
ment, as has all history written primarily 
for the purpose of teaching, it is absolutely 
accurate in every reference to Egyptian 
conditions and customs. On account of the 
character of the Nile Valley, Egypt lay 
apart from other nations. Her civilization 
was distinct and unique. Her customs, lan- 
guage, and system of writing were shared 
by no other nation. It is matter of historic 
record that it was not uncommon for He- 
brews to rise to power in Egypt. The 
writer of the Joseph narrative understood 
the method of Egyptian taxation. He fre- 
quently uses Egyptian words and names. 
To bestow a golden collar on one for dis- 
tinguished services, as upon Joseph, was a 
well-known Egyptian custom. In Egyptian 
history there are many references to severe 
famines. And many other incidental refer- 
ences indicate the accuracy of the narra- 

135 



Zbc JBible fUessage tor flloDern fHanbooD 

live with reference to Egyptian life and 
customs. 

(3) In all Bible narratives many valu- 
able lessons are to be found. Just because 
the narratives are so true to life and lie so 
deeply imbedded in experience, these les- 
sons spring up on every hand like flowers in 
a field. For example, in tlie Joseph narra- 
tive one author enumerates the following 
lessons : 

a. Trial develops character, b. \Vliom 
the Lord loveth he chasteneth. c. All 
things work together for good to them that 
love God. d. Helping another, as Joseph 
helped the cupbearer and baker in prison, 
lightens one's own burdens, e. God does 
not forget his faithful servants when they 
are in trouble. /. He who improves small 
opportunities will not miss life's greater 
chances, g. Whosoever would be great 
among you must be your servant. //. Those 
who do wrong will be confronted with this 
wrong in the most embarrassing and unex- 
pected crises of hfe. i. God overrules evil 
for good. y. The severest tests of char- 
acter come at the most unexpected times 
and in the most unexpected ways. k. 
Loyalty to humble kinsmen in the time of 

136 



5o6epb, tbe 0oOs=accompan(eD Allan 

one's own exaltation is a mark of nobility. 
/. Forgiveness and love are invincible.^ 

All of these momentous lessons and 
doubtless others spring legitimately out of 
the story of Joseph. And yet, when a 
prophet writes history, sifting out the im- 
material, selecting from the mass the things 
essential to his purpose, and idealizing the 
whole in such a way as to be true both to the 
history and to the great message he would 
teach through it, there is to be expected 
some great central theme that is burning in 
the prophetic historian's soul, and which it 
is the aim of his writing to set forth, his 
purpose to make plain, and his desire to 
make live in the hearts of his readers. 

In the Joseph narrative, therefore, as in 
the others, we are to look for the lesson 
not as for something hidden and which 
must be discovered, not as for something 
scattered and which must be gathered up, 
but rather for a lesson which the narrative 
bears everywhere upon its face and makes 
perfectly clear, a lesson that is drawn from 
every part of the narrative into a central 
unity, and glows like a single flaming torch. 

^ Kent, " Heroes and Crises of Early Hebrew History," 
pp. 133, 142, 143- 



Zbc 3Bible fllcasaQe tot fBloDcm Illanbood 

J. The Teaching of the Narrative 

What then is the lesson that flames out 
of this Joseph story as a beacon-light to 
guide the souls of men? 

(i) The prophet sets Joseph before us 
as a man who in all things is faithful to 
God. Joseph is the purest, sweetest, and 
morally the staunchest character in the Old 
Testament. The prophet does not follow 
his life in detail, but gives us only half a 
dozen events in his career. With these, 
however, he flashes upon our minds as by 
a burst of sunshine the fact that Joseph 
was faithful to God. This he does by ex- 
hibiting him staunch in righteousness under 
the severest possible test in a matter in 
which the whole ancient world was lax. 
The vividness with which the picture is 
drawn and the reply quoted from Joseph's 
lips : " How then can I do this great wicked- 
ness, and sin against God?" (Gen. 39:9) 
shows what the inspired writer is putting 
to the front of his narrative. It is the 
faithfulness of Joseph — his faithfulness to 
his work, his faithfulness to his employer 
who trusted him, his faithfulness to God 
in resisting wrong and doing right. 

138 



5o0epb, tbc (5oD*accompanleD man 

(2) But when the prophet has exhibited 
Joseph's faithfulness he has but prepared 
the way for the great theme that is firing 
liis soul. That theme is that God is with 
the man, always with the man, under all 
circumstances with the man who is faith- 
ful to him. In every narrative that we have 
studied thus far this truth has been im- 
plied. Adam and Eve were sent from the 
garden because of sin. To Cain God said, 
" If thou doest well shalt thou not be ac- 
cepted?" (Gen. 4:7). Noah was saved 
because he was found righteous. Abra- 
ham was blessed because he was obedient. 
Jacob was used of God because he sur- 
rendered to God. But in this Joseph nar- 
rative God is shown to be with Joseph in 
every detail of his life: in his boyish 
dreams, prophetic of coming greatness; 
when in the pit, by the timely arrival of the 
merchants ; when carried into Egypt, by his 
entrance into the house of Potiphar; when 
in temptation, by the strength given to re- 
sist; when in prison, by his ability to inter- 
pret dreams; when called before Pharaoh, 
not only by power to interpret dreams, but 
also by wisdom to suggest remedies; when 
mler of Egypt, by the success which at- 

139 



Zbc :fiSib[e VticesaQC tor flloDem manbooD 

tended his efforts; and later, when he was 
made the means of providing for his 
father's household. That the teaching that 
God is with the one who is faithful to him 
is central in the mind of the prophet is evi- 
dent, not only from the fact that it shines 
forth from every detail of the narrative, 
but also from the fact that three different 
times the author declares in so many words 
that " God was zvitJi Joseph." 

This great and blessed truth has become 
a commonplace of our faith, at least theo- 
retically. It is a teaching often expressed 
and always implied throughout the Bible. 
It is the message of the prophets when they 
plead with the people to return unto God 
that he may return unto them. It is the 
message of the Spirit at Jordan and at the 
Mount of Transfiguration, when he said of 
the Christ, " This is my beloved Son " 
(Matt. 3: 17; 17: 5). It is the message of 
Christ when he said : *' I will not leave 
you comfortless ; I will come to you " 
(John 14:18). But nowhere in the Bible 
is the truth that God is faithful to those 
who are faithful to him more fully or beau- 
tifully or forcefully expressed than in the 
story of Joseph. 

140 



5o0cpb, tbc (5oO*accompanieD ffilan 

(3) Every life is involved in two con- 
ditions which at times may give the soul 
great anxiety. First, we are surrounded 
by the providences of God, which at times 
seem kind and at other times cruel. 
Secondly, we are encompassed by the pur- 
poses of men, which are sometimes plans 
for our help and at other times designs for 
our undoing. Any narrative, therefore, 
that would show God to be with the faith- 
ful man must exhibit God with the man 
in those providences which seem cruel and 
amidst those machinations of men which 
seem devilish. It must show that the hard 
as well as the easy circumstance of Hfe is 
of God, and that God has power to over- 
rule the evil designs of men for good. 
These two facts are precisely what the 
Joseph narrative makes clear. 

(a) No error has more persistently pos- 
sessed the mind of man than that pain, sor- 
row, and misfortune are direct punishments 
of God. To controvert this error, the book 
of Job was written. '' Who did sin, this 
man, or his parents, that he was born 
blind?" the disciples inquired of the Lord. 
(John 9:2.) Even at the present time if 
signal misfortune comes to many, they 

141 



XLbc Mblc iXlces^QC tot moDecn fllanbooo 

wonder what sin they have committed to 
deserve such punishment. In this narra- 
tive the pit into which Joseph was cast, the 
slavery into which he was sold, the prison 
in which he was confined, and the devas- 
tating famine that came upon Egypt, are 
shown to be stepping-stones to help Joseph 
up to the larger purposes of God. This 
truth one may trace through every century 
of Israel's history. Their bondage in Egypt 
gave national solidarity; their wilderness 
wanderings gave instruction; their numer- 
ous defeats in battle gave reproof and dis- 
cipline; their Babylonian captivity secured 
purification; and finally, the overthrow of 
Jerusalem made a Jerusalem of the world 
where all were free to worship God in spirit 
and in truth. As God was with Joseph, so 
in all these circumstances he is seen to be 
with Israel working out his larger purposes. 
(b) But we are presented with a more 
difficult problem when into God's provi- 
dences there enters the personal factor 
and the circumstances into which we are 
brought are due to the sins of others or to 
their evil designs. " Ye meant evil against 
me," said Joseph to his brethren, " but God 
meant it for good" (Gen. 50:20). That 

142 



5o0cpb, tbe (5oo*accompanieD fllan 

is, the evil that men do God has power to 
overrule for good and to make useful for 
the furtherance of his purposes. This does 
not excuse the sinner nor palliate his sins, 
nor does it ward off from him the conse- 
quences of his deeds. These facts the nar- 
rative abundantly shows. Joseph's brethren 
are brought in cringing fear to his feet, they 
confess their sin with trembling lips, and 
plead for their lives at his hands. 

Thus the Joseph narrative sets forth with 
great clearness and power what the Scrip- 
tures everywhere teach and what history 
abundantly proves, that God is on his 
throne, that man by sinning cannot defeat 
the Almighty except as he defeats his pur- 
poses for his own soul, that ultimately God 
will have his way while a man's sins will 
surely return upon his own head to accom- 
plish his defeat and humiliation. 

(4) Those familiar with Israel's history 
will at once discern the pertinency of the 
lesson of the Joseph narrative to Israel's 
national life. Her besetting sin was un- 
faithfulness to God. She was ever de- 
parting from the living God to serve idols. 
The historic struggle of the faithful few in 
Israel was to cling to God and to be true 

143 



Zbc Mblc iSlcBB^QC for moDem fllanbood 

to him under circumstances which to hu- 
man eyes portended only evil. The Joseph 
narrative abundantly shows that those who 
are faithful to God may hope in him under 
any and all conditions, and that circum- 
stances the most dark and discouraging will 
ultimately work out the larger purposes of 
the Almighty for those who are true to him. 
(5) This lesson comes with equal per- 
tinency and with tremendous power to the 
modern man. The temptation to compro- 
mise righteousness in order to win worldly 
success was never greater than to-day. It 
is not easy to remain honest when riches 
are the reward of dishonesty; not easy to 
be content in lowly position when sin will 
lift one to high position; not easy to win 
advancement by slow stages and hard 
knocks when compromise promises instant 
success. There is no faith more vital to 
godliness to-day than confidence that God 
is always and under all circumstances with 
the man who is faithful to him, that God 
will keep that man safe, guide him truly, 
and bring him to ultimate success and 
honor beside which all achievements won 
by sinning are but beggarly acquisitions of 
debased manhood. 

144 



tCbe ■Re&cmptton of Hsrad from 
i£QWt 



dobu0, Cbaptere Qnc to Uvpent^, anb Deuteronomy, 
dbaptetf Ubtrt^sone to Ubfrt^^stour 



K 



VIII 



ALTHOUGH some hundreds of years 
intervene between Joseph and Moses 
— authorities vary from one hundred to 
four hundred and thirty — a single chapter, 
the first of the book of Exodus, spans the 
broad historic chasm. Such a fact may 
serve to illustrate what has before been 
remarked, that the inspired writers do not 
aim to give a detailed history of Israel, but 
only such events as show the hand of God 
leading his people. In the study upon which 
we now enter it is of the utmost importance 
to observe this fact. It should be noted 
also that the method of the prophets in 
showing God's dealings with Israel — a 
method which eliminates details, and casts 
events into dramatic pictures — is the most 
vivid and forceful that could be employed. 
There are no stories in the world like 
Bible stories, none that so fascinate the 
imagination and rivet themselves upon the 
memory. What makes them the world's 

147 



Zbc JBlblc aicsB$iQC tot £lloOern manbooD 

great teachers is not only the truth which 
they contain, but also the form in which 
they are cast. 

/. The Narrative 

( I ) After Joseph's death a king arose in 
Egypt " who knew not Joseph," and the Is- 
raelites were reduced to bondage. But the 
slaves multiplied so rapidly that the reign- 
ing Pharaoh became fearful lest their in- 
creasing numbers should overthrow the rul- 
ing dynasty. An order was therefore issued 
that all male Hebrew children should be 
destroyed. 

Because of this law, when Moses was 
born, his mother placed him in a water-tight 
basket and anchored the basket to the bul- 
rushes at the margin of the Nile. Pharaoh's 
daughter, as was her custom, came to the 
Nile to bathe, and noticing the basket, with 
characteristic feminine curiosity, sent her 
maid to fetch it. The crying babe aroused 
the royal daughter's sympathies, and when 
the babe's sister, who had come to watch, 
approached and said, " Shall I find a nurse 
for you ? " permission was granted, and the 
happy sister ran with all speed for her 
mother, who again received her own child, 

14S 



a;be IReDemption ot f srael from JSg^pt 

which she nursed until he was old enough 
to be taken to the royal court, where Pha- 
raoh's daughter reared him as her son, and 
where, according to the sermon of the mar- 
tyr, Stephen, he became learned in all the 
wisdom of the Egyptians. 

(2) When Moses was grown to man- 
hood he keenly felt the cruel bondage of 
his people, and was conscious of the call 
of God to deliver them. Happening one 
day upon an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, 
he killed the Egyptian and buried him in 
the sand. Next day, finding a Hebrew 
smiting a Hebrew, he reproved the aggres- 
sor, who retorted, " Who made thee a prince 
and a judge over us? thinkest thou to kill 
me as thou killedst the Egyptian?" (Exod. 
2: 14.) When the news of the killing came 
to the ears of Pharaoh he sought to slay 
Moses, whereupon Moses fled to a moun- 
tainous wilderness in the region of the Red 
Sea. Here dwelt certain nomadic tribes, 
who evidently worshiped the same God as 
the Hebrews. A priest of one of these 
tribes, the Midianites, had several daugh- 
ters, one of whom Moses married, and for 
some years afterward he was employed by 
his father-in-law as a shepherd. 

149 



Zbc JBtble fUlessagc for fHoOctn fHanbooD 

(3) One day as IMoses watched his flock 
God appeared to him in a burning bush and 
said : " I have surely seen the affliction of 
my people that are in Egypt, and have heard 
their cry by reason of their taskmasters 
. . . and I am come down to deliver them. . . 
Come now therefore, and I will send thee 
unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth 
my people the children of Israel out of 
Eg)'pt " (Exod. 3:7f.). To this startling 
message Moses began to make excuses: 
" Who am I, that I should go unto Pha- 
raoh? " (Exod. 3 : II.) '' They will not be- 
lieve me" (Exod. 4: i). "O Lord, I am 
not eloquent" (Exod. 4:10). To all of 
which Jehovah answered, Go. " I will be 
with thee," and the deliverance will be 
wrought not by your power, but by mine. 
(See Exod. 3: i2f.) 

(4) With Aaron as his spokesman, Closes 
goes to deliver Israel from bondage, carry- 
ing in his hand the wonder-working staff. 
His request to let the people go, Pharaoh 
refuses ; and not only refuses, but makes the 
occasion of placing the Hebrews in still 
harder bondage, in which they are required 
not only to make as many bricks per da}^ 
as formerly, but also to gather the straw 

150 



Zbc ■Kc&emption of f gracl from J£QtVt 

used in making them, whence we have the 
phrase, " To make bricks without straw." 
The Hebrews themselves now complain 
against Moses. Those whom he had come 
to deliver are ready to stone him, where- 
upon Moses in bitter disappointment cries 
unto God. 

The plagues are now brought upon Egypt. 
The Nile turns to the color of blood and 
becomes foul ; frogs multiply into a pest ; 
heaps of dead frogs breed all kinds of flies ; 
flies carry disease germs to man and beast, 
which break out with fevers, tumors, and 
boils ; the land is swept with hail until crops 
are beaten into the ground and trees bat- 
tered to stubs; swarms of locusts multiply 
until they obscure the sun; and so afflicted 
does the pest-ridden, fever-stricken land 
become that there is scarcely a home in 
which one does not lie dead. 

(5) When the Egyptians no longer have 
strength or courage to resist, the Hebrews, 
who dwelt in Goshen, a place apart from the 
stricken Nile district, arise under the leader- 
ship of Moses and flee eastward toward the 
land whence their ancestor, Jacob, had come. 
But on the east the Egyptian frontier was 
guarded by a wall and fortress, which were 

151 



Zbc M\)\c tUceesLQc for modern nianbood 

not easily passed. The fleeing host, turn- 
ing southward, seems to have come upon 
the wall where it extended a little way into 
the shallow water of one arm of the Red 
Sea. An east wind drove back the water, 
and the Israelites went across this arm of 
the sea on dry ground. The pursuing Egyp- 
tians, essaying to follow, were overwhelmed 
by the returning waters. 

(6) The wandering in the wilderness 
now begins. Moses is leader, prophet, 
judge, and lawgiver. There is murmuring 
because water fails, and murmuring be- 
cause food fails. Water is provided ; manna 
is found; and quails are sent. At Sinai, 
while the mountain smokes like a volcano, 
trembles as though shaken by earthquake 
shocks, reverberates with peals of thunder, 
and flashes fire as though shooting forth 
lightning, Moses, who at the command of 
God had gone up into it, receives the Ten 
Commandments, while at its base the peo- 
ple make and worship the golden calf. 

And now for forty years, until nearly 
all who have come out of Egypt are dead, 
these tribes wander in the wilderness. 
Moses, on account of his disobedience, is 
not permitted to lead the children of Is- 

152 



Zbc IReoemption ot ITerael from Bgispt 

rael into the Promised Land. This land 
he himself is not allowed to enter. Go- 
ing to the top of Mount Pisgah, he views it 
from afar; and then, after he has blessed 
the people whom he delivered, whom he has 
led, borne with, prayed for, and suffered 
for, he is gathered to his fathers. 

3. Character of the Narrative 

(i) It has already been pointed out that 
just as there are three accounts of our 
Lord's life, and sometimes four, so of the 
principal events of the Old Testament there 
are several accounts; and in the Bible as 
it has come down to us, these accounts are 
woven together. One of the chief serv- 
ices which Bible scholars have rendered to 
our knowledge of the sacred word is the 
separation of these accounts from each other, 
so that the age, the difference in content, 
and the influences which determined the 
form of each, may be approximately known. 

(2) Between the earlier and later records 
of Moses' work there is a marked differ- 
ence in form. The one holds closer to 
natural events, while the other is more 
filled with the miraculous. The one lies 
nearer to sober history, while the other 

153 



^be JBtble tUcesaQc tot fHoDetn manbooD 

partakes more of dramatic picture. For 
example, at the crossing of the Red Sea, 
the earlier account says that Jehovah caused 
the sea to go back by a strong east wind 
all night, while the later account represents 
Moses stretching his rod over the sea and 
cleaving a path through it so that the 
waters stand like walls on either side. It is 
but a different way of expressing the same 
fact — the marvelous deliverance of God. 
One way is more literal, the other is more 
pictorial. One way is more historical, the 
other is more rhetorical. 

Similar variations are found in the ac- 
count of the plagues. The older narrative 
represents these plagues as extraordinary, 
natural phenomena, which Jehovah uses to 
deliver Israel. The later narratives are 
more spectacular and dramatic. One of 
the later narratives represents Closes, and 
another, Aaron, as stretching out the rod 
and bringing the plagues, and again stretch- 
ing out the rod and dispelling them. It is 
but a different way of expressing the same 
thing — the marvelous deliverance of God. 

(3) In one's study of the Bible it is 
important to note the marked difference 
between the oriental and the occidental 

154 



trbe IRcDemption of ireracl from Baspt 

mind. The occidental thinks in elaborate 
details; the oriental thinks by leaps and 
bounds. The one thinks in terms of sober 
history; the other in pictures. The west- 
erner seeks a scientific analysis; the east- 
erner, a dramatic situation. The emphasis 
of the modern mind is on " How? " " How 
did God do things?'' The emphasis of the 
prophetic mind was upon the fact that God 
did things. And the inspired writers al- 
ways relate the fact in the most impressive 
manner. 

(4) That the children of Israel were in 
Egypt, and that in a remarkable manner 
they were delivered from Egyptian bond- 
age, there is no question among the best 
bibhcal scholars. In fact, it is matter of 
contemporary record that about the time 
of the deliverance a series of remarkable 
calamities overwhelmed Egypt. There were 
rival pretenders to the throne. Civil war 
broke out. Petty nobles ruled. The land 
was deluged with blood. Anarchy pre- 
vailed. From every side the enemies of 
Egypt invaded and plundered. For a time 
government was practically at an end. 

In such details, however, the prophetic 
writer would not be interested, even if he 

155 



Zbc Mblc medsa^e tor fHoDcrn manbood 

were familiar with them. With the civil 
strife of Egypt, with her foreign wars, or 
with the destiny of her throne, he is not 
concerned. His eye is upon the fact, and 
his heart burns with the fact, that Jehovah 
brings a marvelous deliverance to his peo- 
ple. The account of that deliverance he 
puts in a form which rivets it upon the 
memory, fires the imagination, and stirs the 
heart to its depths. 

J. The Plagues 

(i) To each of the Egyptian plagues 
there is a natural background. And it is 
not the last time in history that natural 
events conspired in an extraordinary way 
to accomplish the purposes of God. There 
are times when the water of the Nile 
actually looks like blood. The June rise 
brings down vegetable matter and minute 
organisms, which turn the water first green 
and later a dull red. At such times the 
water is very unwholesome, and when such 
conditions are aggravated it is really unfit 
for use, although the Nile is the only source 
of water supply in Egypt. When the water 
is thus foul the conditions are most favor- 
able for the multiplication of frogs. Early 

156 



Zbc IReOemption of "ffgracl from J^aspt 

writers have repeatedly mentioned remarlc- 
able multiplication of these creatures. In 
Egypt flies and stinging insects are per- 
ennial pests; and we have learned from 
science, and know from experience, that a 
land filled with dead frogs or decaying fish 
would furnish the condition for their rapid 
multiplication. 

Only recently we have learned that in- 
sects carry disease. It is not surprising, 
therefore, that after the plague of flies and 
gnats there should come that of murrain 
(a fever) upon cattle, and blains (tumors) 
and boils upon man and beast. As late as 
1842 four thousand oxen died of plague 
in Egypt. 

Hail-storms are rare in the land of the 
Nile, but all the more remarkable when 
they come. In 1843 Lepsius reports one 
which made the day as dark as night. And 
in some parts of the United States we know 
what it means to have our crops pounded 
into the earth and our trees all but des- 
troyed by hail. In Egypt travelers have 
seen the sun obscured by great locust- 
flights; and in South Dakota, Nebraska, 
and Kansas, settlers have seen grasshoppers 
obscure the sun in the same manner. 

157 



XLbc JSible ftlegsage tor flloDern ftlanbooD 

It will be observed that in the plagues of 
the foul Nile, the frogs, the flies, and the 
diseases, there is a scientific sequence, in 
which each might be the occasion of the 
succeeding one. Observations in Egypt also 
show that there is a close sequence in time 
between the plagues. The Nile becomes 
foul in July or August; frogs are common 
in September; flies swarm in October and 
November; the diseases which they spread 
immediately follow; hail occurs only in 
the rainy month of January; the swarms of 
locusts come in early spring. And after 
such a series of calamities we are not sur- 
prised to learn that one lies dead in every 
home. 

The incident of the crossing of the Red 
Sea does not stand alone in history. In 
Lake Menzaleh, lying north of the Red Sea, 
Major-General TuUock reports that on one 
occasion the waters were driven back sev- 
eral miles by a strong wind, leaving the 
bottom of the lake dry. And in 1738 the 
Russians captured the Crimea by trav- 
ersing a passage made by the wind in 
the Putrid Sea.^ 



1 Kent, " Heroes and Crises of Early Hebrew History," 
p. 183. 



158 



tTbc H^eDemption of ITsrael from Bflgpt 

(2) Such is the physical background of 
these remarkable incidents. What of their 
miraculous element ? There is such a thing 
as interpreting Scripture too literally. We 
should not make miracles out of pictorial 
phrases, rhetorical expressions, or dramatic 
situations. And yet beyond question the 
events of the life of Moses are filled to the 
brim with the extraordinary workings of 
God, workings of the greatest significance 
for all nations and all time. Was there no 
miracle in the remarkably favorable season 
in the upper Nile, which prepared in un- 
usual abundance the materials for the foul- 
ing of the river? Was there no miracle in 
the preparation which for some time had 
been going on to bring the extraordinary 
multiplication of frogs, the swarming flies, 
and ravaging diseases ? Was there no mira- 
cle in the unparalleled hail-storm, and in 
the unprecedented flight of locusts just at 
this time? Was there no miracle in the 
timeliness of the east wind, which just at 
the right moment made a path through the 
sea for Israel, and whose ceasing permitted 
the waters to return to overwhelm the Egyp- 
tians? 

There is need of care lest, after having 

159 



tXbe Mblc OiceenQC tor fHoDem manboob 

defined a miracle according to the terms of 
logic, we apply our stilted definition with 
unwarranted freedom and boldness to the 
workings of God, and thus become the vic- 
tims and captives of our own phrases: 

God moves in a mysterious way 

His wonders to perform; 
He plants his footsteps in the sea 

And rides upon the storm. 

Miracle in the largest, deepest, and most 
worthy sense, there certainly was in the 
conspiring of these extraordinary natural 
events to achieve the purposes of Jehovah. 
And not only was God working in these ex- 
traordinary events, but also in events of 
national and international significance, to 
which reference has already been made. 
All conspired together under the hand of 
Jehovah to deHver the children of Israel 
from Egypt, to constitute them a nation, 
and to accomplish through them a distinct 
mission in the world. 

Such wonder-working is of the most far- 
reaching significance, for it shows God 
operative in nature and in history. It fills 
the word " providence " with a fulness of 
meaning. It locates within the hand of 

i6o 



Zbe IReDemption ot ITsrael trom Bfl^pt 

God every event in every nation. It ex- 
hibits history as illustrating the teachings 
of Christ: "Ye are of more value than 
many sparrows," and " The very hairs of 
your head are all numbered." To be able 
to see the hand of God in nature, in his- 
toric events, and in present circumstances 
and conditions, requires prophetic insight. 
And such insight is token of the revelation 
of God and of the inspiration of the Holy 
Spirit. 

4. God Redeems His People 

But the matters which we have so far 
discussed constitute no part of the prophet's 
thought in recording these events. The one 
fact that thrills his soul is this: God is a 
Redeemer. He redeems his people. 

(i) Throughout the book of Deute- 
ronomy the theme of redemption is con- 
stantly reiterated. " Because Jehovah lov- 
eth you, and because he would keep the 
oath which he sware unto your fathers, 
hath Jehovah brought you out with a mighty 
hand, and redeemed you out of the house 
of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king 
of Egypt " (Deut. 7:8). " And thou shalt 
remember that thou wast a bondman in the 

L 161 



Xlbc Xihlc aicessiQC for modern fllanbooD 

land of Egypt, and Jehovah thy God re- 
deemed thee" (Deut. 15:15). "O Lord 
Jehovah, destroy not thy people and thine 
inheritance, that thou hast redeemed through 
thy greatness" (Deut. 9:26). This de- 
liverance is constantly referred to in Scrip- 
ture as a redemption. And the one thing 
that the Hebrews never ceased to believe 
in and to hope for, was that God would re- 
deem them from all their distresses. 

(2) In our studies thus far we have been 
following the fundamental teachings of the 
Bible from the first chapter of Genesis. But 
not till we come to the deliverance of Is- 
rael from Egypt do we meet the fact of 
redemption. In the creation story we saw 
Jehovah as the Creator of the world and all 
that was in it. In the Temptation narrative 
we saw the spiritual nature of man thor- 
oughly analyzed. In the account of Cain 
and Abel we saw worship and conduct con- 
joined, while both were required to be 
the expression of a right spirit. In the 
Flood narrative we saw the righteous and 
wicked separated and meeting different 
ends. In the Abraham story we saw God 
in his relation to an obedient man. In the 
Jacob narrative we saw Jehovah wrestling 

162 



Zbc IRcOemption of ITsracl from JEsspt 

with a sinner of high purpose, and striving 
to bend him to his will. In the account of 
Joseph we saw God's faithfulness meeting 
man's faithfulness. Not until we come to 
Moses do we meet the great fact of redemp- 
tion. All that precedes but paves the way 
for this fact of supreme interest to man, 
that God is a Redeemer. And from Moses 
to the close of the Old Testament the in- 
spired record follows the outworking of 
God's redemption in the history of the He- 
brew people, and contains an increasingly 
clear and full expression of this central 
world-fact. The " remnant," of which the 
prophets speak, is a redeeming remnant. 
The " suffering servant of Jehovah " is a 
redeeming servant. The " Coming One," to 
whom all eyes turn, is coming to redeem. 
And at length the Christ himself, the Re- 
deemer, comes to redeem a world in a sense 
larger and deeper than any of which the 
Jew thought or dreamed or hoped or 
prayed. 

(3) Even in this earliest expression of 
the "glad tidings," the conditions of re- 
demption are remarkably clear and full. 
Two of them we find in the call of Moses : 

a. God says, " And now, behold, the 

163 



Zbc M\)ic aicee^Qe tor nioDetn fllanbooD 

cry of the children of Israel is come unto 
me" (Exod. 3:9). Here is the first con- 
dition of redemption, the cry of the soul 
unto God. It is true that God's Spirit con- 
victs of sin ; but there is no redemption un- 
til there is a movement of the soul in a 
prayer for help. In nearly every case those 
whom Christ healed, even physically, cried 
to him for healing. And to-day, though 
hundreds may be converted, no one is ever 
converted who will not pray. This first 
condition of redemption is as true of na- 
tions as of individuals. Nations and peo- 
ples have been redeemed from a lower to 
a higher state only as they have sought the 
help of God. No nation has ever been 
*' exalted " except through righteousness. 
Sin has ever proved a " reproach " to any 
people. 

b. To Moses God said : " Come now 
therefore, and I will send thee unto Pha- 
raoh, that thou mayest bring forth my peo- 
ple the children of Israel out of Eg}^pt " 
(Exod. 3:10). That is, God delivers 
through a deliverer. He redeems by call- 
ing, equipping, and sending a redeemer. 
God's call was in the heart of Closes when. 
as a young man, he slew the Egyptian. 

164 



Zbc TReDemptlon of Hsrael from iBgwt 

That call never comes to one who does 
not discern needs. From the task set for 
him, Moses shrank, as has every redeemer 
of men ; as did Isaiah when he said, ** I 
am a man of unclean lips " (Isa. 6:5); as 
did our Saviour when in Gethsemane he 
prayed, " If it be possible, let this cup pass 
away from me" (Matt. 26:39). 

But how fully Moses answered the call, 
and how complete was his self -giving for 
his people, we learn from those words which 
he uttered in one of the most difficult ex- 
periences of the wilderness wandering: 
" Yet now, (O Lord) if thou wilt forgive 
their sin . . ; and if not, blot me, I pray 
thee, out of thy book which thou hast writ- 
ten " (Exod. 32:32). He bore the mur- 
murings of the people ; he was charitable to- 
ward their fleshliness when they longed for 
the leeks and onions of Egypt; he was pa- 
tient with their impatience; he pleaded for 
them in their sins ; and, just as Isaiah never 
experienced the glory that he prophesied, 
and John the Baptist never enjoyed the 
kingdom that he preached, so Moses never 
entered the Promised Land, but saw it only 
from afar. Yet, such is the work and the 
fate of a redeemer of men. The triumph 

165 



Zbc JBiblc {JSlesenQc for fllodetn flrianbood 

and the glory are revealed only by the 
future years. 

(4) There are few more dramatic or 
impressive scenes in the Bible than that 
of the giving of the law at Sinai. And, 
whether so intended by the writer or not, 
every part of it is wonderfully typical of 
the long process of redemption. Those 
whom God redeems are to be redeemed, 
not only from something, but to something. 
Moses, talking with God in the cloud-be- 
girt mountain, is given the tables of the 
Ten Commandments. Unto these com- 
mandments the people are to be redeemed 
until they shall be written on the tables of 
their hearts. At the foot of the mountain 
the people, worshiping the golden calf which 
their own hands have made, have turned 
their faces again toward Egypt. The 
golden calf is typical of their past, the 
commandments of their future; the one of 
their bondage, the other of their liberty; 
the first of what they are to be redeemed 
from, the second of what they are to be 
redeemed to. 

Typical also is the breaking of the tables 
of stone; for although the tables of com- 
mandments be shattered a thousand times 

166 



XS^bc IRcDcmption of ITsracl trom Bg^pt 

by the impatience of man, who compre- 
hends not the long and tedious process of 
redemption, yet God gives his law over 
again, " line upon line " and " precept upon 
precept." 

There is only one scene in the Bible more 
impressive and more filled with promise than 
this at Sinai. In it the Redeemer of men, 
the one in whose heart the law of God was 
perfectly written, the one who himself was 
henceforth to be the Law of men's lives, 
was hanging upon the cross. Over his head 
the heavens turned to darkness. Under his 
feet the earth reeled and quaked. No 
longer now, however, is the law of God 
fallen and broken, but lifted up, completed, 
and made effective in Him who was able to 
say, " It is finished." The first writing of 
the perfect law of God in a life is finished, 
and therefore the process of writing the 
perfect law of God in all lives is begun. 



167 



n 



Zbc Beglnnina of tbe Conaueat of 
Canaan 

3o0bua, Cbaptere One to l^fne 



IX 



THE purpose of the Scriptures is spir- 
itual instruction, and it is important to 
observe that such instruction is imparted by 
the Bible records just as they stand. With 
reference to any narrative, such as that of 
the crossing of the Jordan, or the taking of 
Jericho, a number of questions might arise, 
each of which in and of itself is quite legiti- 
mate. For example, are these narratives 
circumstantial history? Are they historical 
events spiritually interpreted? Or are they 
pictorial representations of historical facts? 
While such questions are proper subjects of 
investigation, there is imminent danger lest 
in seeking answers to them the great spir- 
itual truths which the narrator had in mind 
be overlooked. 

If one were to consider critically any 
modern sermon, the first question ought to 
be, What is its spiritual message? This 
message will be expressed by the various 
materials just as they are set down by the 

171 



Zbc Mblc fnessagc tor ftloDern ttlanbood 

preacher, not by these materials as they lie 
torn one from the other, and assigned each 
to its source and original connection by 
one who discerns no spiritual message in 
the sermon as it stands. 

It is significant of the spiritual purpose 
of the Scriptures that the first four inci- 
dents narrated of Israel's conquest of the 
Promised Land, set forth four conditions 
which are fundamental in all spiritual con- 
quest. 

/. The Crossing of the Jordan 

The first, and possibly the most funda- 
mental of these conditions, is confidence 
that God is with his people. This con- 
fidence is expressed by the narrative of the 
crossing of the Jordan. It is the time of 
harvest, when the Jordan overflows its 
banks, and the least favorable time for a 
crossing. But suddenly the waters are cut 
off. The people pass over " dry-shod," as 
they had passed through the Red Sea 
under Moses. The inevitable conclusion is 
that as God was with Moses, so now he is 
with Joshua; that as Jehovah brought the 
people out of bondage, so now he is leading 
them to conquest. The narrative just as it 

172 



^be JBefllnninfl of tbe Conquest of Canaan 

stands expresses this fact in unmistakable 
terms and with great power. 

The modern scientific mind turns with 
not a Httle skepticism, and even with a 
feeHng of irreverence upon the narrative, 
to question its historicity and to challenge 
its truthfulness. Were the waters of the 
Jordan really cut off? It happens that the 
narrative is here rather specific, stating that 
" the waters which came down from above 
stood, and rose up in one heap, a great 
way off, at Adam." Adam was the name 
of a village which meant " red earth " or 
" clay." 

A similar incident occurred in A. D. 
1257. To save a retreating Moslem army 
it was necessary to repair a bridge which 
spanned the Jordan. Its foundations had 
been undermined by the swollen waters. 
On arriving at the bridge the workmen 
found the bed of the river dry, and so it re- 
mained for several hours, until the repairs 
were nearly completed, when the waters 
flowed on again. The historian states that 
the cause of the waters being cut off was 
a landslide farther up the river, that the 
swollen stream had undermined the banks 
until they fell in, thus making a dam across 

173 



XLbc Mblc flQeeaage tot modern (nanbooD 

the stream. His interpretation of the event 
is that it was a remarkable token of Allah's 
favor.^ Doubtless some such natural oc- 
currence forms the basis of our Bible nar- 
rative. 

Nothing is gained and much is lost by 
not giving full weight to such natural phe- 
nomena, for they were the providences of 
God, and had a use in producing in the 
minds of the Israelites the assurance that 
God was with them, leading them, and fight- 
ing for them. Things do not just happen in 
this world. God is over all. Indeed, the 
most subtle and fatal infidelity is that which 
pushes God out of so-called natural events 
and discerns him only in the supernatural. 
Too long we have treated the Old Testa- 
ment as the Pharisees treated Christ, say- 
ing, " Show us a sign." Too long we have 
seen God most plainly in the most extraor- 
dinary. To the Pharisees Christ replied: 
" Can you not interpret the signs of the 
times? Can you not discern God in the 
conjunction of events ? " The really great 
thing about the Jewish people, and that 
which made them the spiritual teachers of 



1 Kent. " Founders and Rulers of United Israel," 
p. 5. 



174 



Zbc JSefltnninfl of tbe Conaucet ot Canaan 

the world, was just this fact, their discern- 
ment of the working of God in all natural 
phenomena and in all events of history. 
It was God who gave or withheld rain, God 
who brought or sent away the locusts, God 
who blessed or blighted the vineyards, God 
who granted or refused harvests, God who 
sent victory or defeat in war, God who re- 
duced the people to slavery or built them up 
in national life. There were no natural phe- 
nomena and no events of history in which 
they did not discern the hand of God and 
interpret him as working immediately and 
effectively. 

Whatever may be the historic facts be- 
hind the crossing of the Jordan, the great 
thing as the narrative lies in the record, is 
the narrator's spiritual interpretation of the 
event, the prophet's discernment of God at 
work. Such discernment and such inter- 
pretation establish in the minds of the peo- 
ple confidence that God is with them and 
will fight their battles. It has always been 
true, and is true to-day, that confidence in 
the presence and help of God is the funda- 
mental necessity in all man's work for God 
and all man's spiritual conquests both of 
himself and others. 

^75 



^be Mblc fnes^ade for flloDem manbooO 

2. The Taking of Jericho 

A second condition necessary to spiritual 
conquest is faith that nothing is too hard 
for God when we obey him. This condition 
is vividly illustrated in the taking of Jericho. 
No doubt the narrative is purposely thrown 
into that form which will set the truth in 
clearest light and teach it most impressively. 

Jericho lay on the western side of the 
Jordan Valley, about five miles north of 
the Dead Sea. It was the lowest city on the 
face of the earth, being eight hundred feet 
below sea level. Though situated in a 
fertile spot, it never gave rise to any man 
of distinction, and its people never were 
renowned in war. Yet it was a walled 
city of some strength. Its ruins to-day com- 
prise a mound one thousand two hundred 
feet long and in places fifty feet high. The 
ancient wall had a stone foundation and 
was built of burned brick. In places the 
ruined wall is ten feet high, and from ten 
to thirty feet thick. Yet its condition when 
taken by the Hebrews can only be con- 
jectured. The Bible narrative, however, 
conveys the idea that it was a city of some 
strength. 

176 



^be JSedinning ot tbe Conquedt ot Canaan 

The method by which Israel took the city 
was, to say the least, unique, and, from 
the human standpoint, pitiably inadequate. 
The Hebrews, led by their priests and the 
ark of God, march around the city once, 
and then return to camp. This seemingly 
futile operation was repeated each day for 
six days. On the seventh day the city was 
encompassed seven times. Then at a given 
signal all the people shouted and the walls 
came tumbling down. Each warrior entered 
the city opposite the spot where he stood, 
and thus Jericho was taken. 

Some scholars have suggested that this 
method of taking the city was a stratagem 
to throw the inhabitants off guard. It has 
been thought that after making a circuit of 
the city in such futile fashion for six days, 
the Hebrew army would become an object 
of ridicule to the inhabitants of Jericho 
rather than an object of fear. Others have 
suggested that Rahab and her family be- 
trayed the city from within, and at a given 
signal opened the gates. It is more likely 
that we have not a complete account of 
this historic event and that more incidents 
are left out of the record than are inserted. 
The Bible is not a book of detailed his- 

M 177 



tibc JSible (Heeaadc for (iloDem (llanboo^ 

tory, but of spiritual teaching. By confes- 
sion of the Gospels themselves we have not 
a complete account of our Lord's life; and 
the accounts which we have are professedly 
arranged to emphasize particular phases of 
the Lord's work. Beyond question we do 
not make sufficient allowance for pictorial 
methods of oriental expression; but, on the 
other hand, interpret rhetorical figures with 
unwarranted literalness; while, as a matter 
of fact, rhetorical figures constitute one of 
the best means of conveying spiritual truths. 
The account of the taking of Jericho, so 
simply and effectively narrated, sets forth 
with startling clearness the fact that noth- 
ing is too hard for God when men obey him. 
The outstanding facts of the narrative are 
these : ( I ) Specific directions for the taking 
of Jericho are given by the messenger of 
Jehovah. (2) From these directions Joshua 
does not swerve in any particular, but fol- 
lows them to the letter. (3) By Joshua's 
obedience the seemingly impossible is 
achieved. The walls come tumbling down 
as Jehovah had promised; and thus it be- 
comes evident to all that nothing is too 
hard for Jehovah when his people obey him. 
On the threshold of Israel's conquest of 

178 



Zbc JScQinnim of tbe Conquedt ot Canaan 

Canaan, when a hundred seemingly in- 
superable tasks confronted her, this was 
the truth that she most of all needed to 
know. Without confidence in Jehovah's 
power nothing awaited her but disaster and 
defeat. A lack of such confidence was 
what led to the long wandering in the wil- 
derness. The spies might properly inquire 
the best way to take the land, but not 
whether the land could be taken, after God 
had told the people to go up and take it. 
When God tells his people to do a thing, it 
may be proper to inquire how it may best 
be done, but not whether it can be done. 
God commands no impossible tasks. The 
spies were sent to see if the hosts of Is- 
rael could do what God commanded them 
to do. The result was forty years of aim- 
less and profitless wandering in the wilder- 
ness. It is always so. It always leads to 
wandering in a wilderness when we re- 
frain from attempting what God commands 
through fear lest we shall fail. 

This is the truth that every century must 
learn, and the truth that demands emphasis 
to-day. Modern conditions have thrust 
upon us new problems. Weak-hearted 
Christians are filled with excuses. Regrets 

179 



Zbc :Biblc fneaea^e toe tHoDem tllanbooD 

are vain. Amid all the difficulties of modern 
home life let parents obey God, and nothing 
will be too hard for him to do for them 
and their children. Amid all the tempta- 
tions of business, government, social life, 
and politics, let men obey God, and God 
will work wonders in our midst, and walls 
will come tumbling down — defenses of 
wickedness which seem impregnable — in a 
way to astonish the world more than did 
the tumbling walls of Jericho. It is dif- 
ficult in our day not to be covetous, not to 
compromise the right, and not to condone 
sin. Otherwise how shall we make money, 
and how shall we gain position and power? 
Nothing is too hard for God to do for 
those who obey him. Confidence in this fact 
on the part of God's people would work 
marvels in purifying modern life and in- 
stitutions. 

J. The Taking of Ai 

A third condition of spiritual conquest is 
an understanding of the fact that not even 
the least victory is possible to the dis- 
obedient. Just as the formidable task" of 
taking Jericho was easy for God's people 
when they were obedient, so the insignifi- 

iSo 



Zbc 3BeQ{nninQ of tbe Conaucat of Canaan 

cant task of taking Ai was impossible to 
them, when they were disobedient. 

The incident is readily recalled. Spies 
were sent to determine the strength of Ai, 
a small village not far from Jericho. They 
returned to Joshua and reported that it was 
a place of little strength, and that it was 
wholly unnecessary to march the whole 
army up the hilly road for its capture. 
They regarded two or three thousand men 
quite sufficient to put all the inhabitants to 
the sword. The suggestions of the spies 
were adopted and their advice followed. 
But the two or three thousand men found 
themselves outmatched. They were de- 
feated and, fleeing before the men of Ai, 
many of them were slain. 

The narrative now discloses the fact that 
sin was in the camp, and that Israel was de- 
feated because of disobedience. Thus is both 
announced and illustrated the truth that in 
fighting God's battles no victory is possible 
to those who harbor sin. When the sin of 
Achan — the secreting of a wedge of gold 
and a Babylonish garment — was discovered, 
confessed, and punished, the victory over 
Ai was won. 

The truth here enunciated is continu- 

i8i 



Zbc 3iblc fUeesafle tor flloDetn ftlanbooO 

ously insisted upon by the prophets through- 
out Israel's subsequent victory. Did the 
land refuse its increase? It was because 
the people were robbing God. Was Israel 
carried into captivity? It was because they 
had turned to idols. " Them that honor 
me," saith Jehovah, " I will honor " ( i 
Sam. 2: 30). 

Translated into terms of modern life, 
the truth is the same. Even the smallest 
spiritual battle is lost for the one who con- 
sciously harbors sin. For the disobedient 
the otherwise easy victory is already a de- 
feat. Shall one think to retain health with 
the microbe of disease already at work in 
his body ? To be sure, the microbe may be 
small, but it is deadly, for microbes multi- 
ply, and their ravages do not depend upon 
size. So also, rebellion against God in one 
thing soon spreads to other things. The 
smallest sin consciously harbored means ulti- 
mate defeat, for God does not fight the 
battles of the disobedient. Jehovah does 
not count sins as big and little. Away with 
all sin out of the life. Disobedience, whether 
in things small or great, is the cardinal 
sin. With disobedience in the heart no 
spiritual victories are possible. " If ye love 

182 



^be XcQinnim ot tbe Conqueet ot Canaan 

me," said Christ, " ye will keep my com- 
mandments " (John 14:15). Disobedience 
and love cannot abide in the same life. If 
one remains the other must go. 

4. Neglecting to Consult God 

A fourth condition of spiritual conquest 
is that in all matters God is to be consulted. 
Otherwise dangerous entanglements arise. 
This fact is clearly set forth in the incident 
of the men of Gibeon. They came to 
Joshua wearing old clothes and old shoes, 
having old sacks, old wine-skins, and moldy 
bread. They claimed to be ambassadors 
from '' a very far country," and said that 
they were sent to make a treaty with Joshua. 
They declared that the fame of Joshua's 
greatness and power had reached their peo- 
ple, and that they had also learned of the 
greatness of his God. " We are your serv- 
ants," they said ; " make a treaty with us." 
The idea, of course, was that there could 
be no danger to Israel from such a treaty. 
Since they were from such a far country 
intermarriage would be out of the question, 
and Israel would not be influenced by their 
religion. Joshua, however, had been com- 
manded not to make treaties, but utterly to 

183 



^be JSible medda^e for (lloOetn filanbood 

destroy the inhabitants of Canaan. But 
these ambassadors were so suave, and their 
plea so plausible, that Joshua did not think 
it was necessary to consult Jehovah. This 
fact the text of the narrative particularly 
points out. Israel " asked not counsel at 
the mouth of the Lord." They concluded a 
treaty with a people who lived not more 
than a day's journey from them, and as a 
consequence they were now exposed to all 
the dangers arising from close association 
with idolaters. Had Israel consulted Jeho- 
vah the deceit would have been uncovered 
and the entanglements avoided. 

One marvels at the incisiveness of such 
a presentation of truth, truth that is world- 
wide and age-long. How our problems 
would be shot through and through with 
light if we only consulted God about them, 
problems of personal habit, problems of so- 
cial practice, problems of business methods, 
problems of religious duty and cross-bear- 
ing. To a young woman who consulted me 
ten years ago on a matter involving a ques- 
tion of conscience, I suggested that she make 
it a subject of prayer. " Oh," she replied, 
" I know what I shall have to do if I pray 
about it ! " Precisely so. Even the suggestion 

184 



(Tbe Bcflinnina ot tbe Conquest ot Canaan 

of taking our problems to God often an- 
swers them for us. We argue to persuade 
ourselves of the rightfulness of things that 
are doubtful. We gather together plausible 
reasons. Were we simply to consult God, 
doubt would often vanish and the path of 
duty become plain. For example, Should 
one publicly confess Christ? Should he 
join a church? Should he use narcotics or 
intoxicants? Should he give a certain pro- 
portion of his income to the work of God? 
Instead of gathering arguments to justify 
one's self for pursuing the easiest or most 
pleasant course, let one take such questions 
to God in prayer. And so with every ques- 
tion which gives rise to reluctance or doubt. 
The simple practice of sincerely consulting 
God would revolutionize the lives of many 
Christians. It would replace half-hearted- 
ness with whole-heartedness, doubt with 
certainty, carelessness with conviction, 
weakness with power, a life negative in in- 
fluence for Christ with a life positive and 
constructive. It would cast out sin and 
replace it with purity and sweetness. 

Thus it appears that from these four in- 
cidents just as they stand in the sacred 
record spring these four great truths — - 

i8s 



^be Mblc (JRcBBHQc for moDecn nrianbood 

truths fundamental to spiritual conquest 
either in individuals or nations, viz. : 

( I ) The necessity of confidence that God 
is with one and is working for him and 
through him. (2) The assurance that when 
God commands, nothing is too difficult for 
the obedient. (3) The knowledge that no 
victory is possible to the disobedient. (4) 
The certainty that he alone walks in a plain 
and safe path who consults God. 



186 



PART II 

THE MISSION OF GOD'S 
PEOPLE 



Zbc Booft of 3onab 



X 



I. The Book 

FOR the number of chapters it contains 
the book of Jonah is beyond question 
the greatest book in the Old Testament, but 
its spiritual significance has long been ob- 
scured by the supposed difficulties of the 
great fish swallowing Jonah. 

It is strange indeed that the sea-monster's 
swallowing of Jonah should for so long 
have been a matter of controversy, when the 
literalness of the incident is of no spiritual 
significance whatever. To be sure, the Bible 
teaches spiritual truth by literal history, but 
it also teaches by parable, allegory, vision, 
and poetry. Christ's parables of the Prodi- 
gal Son, the Wicked Husbandmen, and the 
Unjust Steward need not be regarded as 
history in order to convey spiritual teach- 
ing. Nathan's parable of the Little Ewe 
Lamb and Isaiah's parable of the Vine- 
yard give place to no other kind of biblical 

191 



Zbe Mblc aic00SLQc tot fllot>etn (llanbooD 

literature for pointedness and power of 
spiritual teaching. 

Whether or not the book of Jonah is his- 
tory or parable is simply a question of fact 
to be determined by the character of the 
book itself. It is not a question for con- 
troversy, with the deeper questions of in- 
spiration and revelation lying in the back- 
ground of thought, and with the apprehen- 
sion present that these must be relinquished 
if the book is not found to be literal his- 
tory. 

Some stumble over the fact that Christ 
quoted the book of Jonah and referred to 
the great fish. To them such quotation 
seems either to stamp the book as literal his- 
tory or to impugn the knowledge of our 
Lord. Christ, however, may have used 
Jonah as an illustration to make clear to his 
hearers an obscure fact, just as every one 
uses illustrations. The essential element of 
an illustration is, not that it be history, but 
that it be something well known. One's 
reference to the Prodigal Son does not in- 
dicate that he regards this character in 
Christ's parable as historical. Macbeth, 
the Merchant of Venice, and Robinson 
Crusoe are constantly upon our lips as illus- 

192 



ZTbc :fi3ooR ot 5onab 

trations, not because they are historical 
characters, but because they are well-known 
characters. So also when Christ referred 
to Jonah he referred to one with whom 
every Jewish auditor was familiar. 

A prophet by the name of Jonah lived 
in the eighth century before Christ. He 
prophesied the extension of the territory of 
Jeroboam 11. He may, indeed, have gone 
on a mission to Nineveh, as Elijah did to 
Sarepta and Elisha to Damascus. But the 
book of Jonah was not written until two 
or three hundred years after Jeroboam H 
and, of course, was not written by Jonah 
himself. 

When the book is rightly regarded all dif- 
ficulties are eliminated, and it comes into 
its own, not as a holder of curious incident, 
but as a conveyer of spiritual truth. 

2. What the Book Teaches 

The book of Jonah sets forth the great 
sin of Israel's national life. The following 
points should be carefully noted: 

( I ) Jonah, the Jew, God sends to preach 
to Nineveh, the typical Gentile city. Thus 
is expressed in concrete form the fact that 
God chose the Jews to give the knowledge 

N 193 



CTbe XMc aicsetLQc tax (iloDetn fllanboob 

of God to the Gentiles. This, as all know, 
was the historic mission of the Jews. For 
this they were called out of Chaldea, dis- 
ciplined in Egypt, trained in the wilder- 
ness, given a national home at the cross- 
roads of the nations, and, through war and 
trade, sent with God's message to all the 
world. Their mission was indicated by 
God's words to Abraham : " I will bless 
thee, and be thou a blessing . . . and in 
thee shall all the families of the earth be 
blessed" (Gen. 12:3) ; as also by the fact 
that Christ was " a light to lighten the 
Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Is- 
rael " (Luke 2: 32). That glory lay in the 
fact that by giving light to the Gentiles, 
Christ was bringing to fruition the mission 
of God's chosen people. 

(2) In the story Jonah flees from his 
mission. He does not want the Gentile city 
to repent so as to enjoy the favor of God. 
In this he represents precisely the attitude 
of the Jews toward the heathen. Israel 
held the Gentiles fit only for destruction, 
and longed to see the wrath of God visited 
upon them. Jehovah's favors, she claimed 
exclusively for herself. In our Lord's time, 
what most offended the Jewish authorities 

194 



tibc :(Booft of 5onab 

was that Christ went in to eat with publicans 
and sinners; and for the apostles, the most 
difficult task was to break with Jewish ex- 
clusiveness. To Jewish Christians also, it 
was an offense that Peter entered the house 
of Cornelius and that Paul preached the 
gospel to Gentiles. It is plain, therefore, 
that in the book of Jonah the prophet is 
holding up the national sin of Israel by pic- 
turing her running from her appointed mis- 
sion of giving the knowledge of God to the 
Gentiles. 

(3) During his flight by sea, however, 
Jonah is swallowed by a great fish, just as 
Israel, because unfaithful to her mission, 
was swallowed up by the heathen nations, 
and for a time — seventy years — held by 
them in Babylonian captivity, until the peo- 
ple were so humiliated and disciplined that 
they were willing to obey God. 

The imagery of the Jonah story is not 
peculiar to this book. The heathen world 
was commonly regarded by the Jews as a 
surging, restless sea; and the figure of Is-' 
rael being swallowed up by this sea of 
heathenism, as by a great sea-monster, was 
a common one. In Jeremiah 51:34 we 
read :- " Nebuchadrezzar the king of Baby- 

195 



Ubc JSible flleaaade tor fHodecn fllanbooD 

Ion . . . hath swallowed me up like a dragon, 
he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he 
hath cast me out.'' Here we have the com- 
plete figure of the swallowing of Jonah 
applied to the Jews in Babylonian captivity. 

(4) Next in this great object-lesson 
Jonah is cast out of the monster's belly on to 
dry land; and correspondingly, in the ex- 
perience of Israel — that is, after she has 
been swallowed up in captivity, and retained 
among the heathen a few years she is re- 
turned to Jerusalem by Cyrus to rebuild the 
temple and the city. This step, also the 
verse just quoted from Jeremiah, indicates, 
" He hath cast me out." The forty-second 
and forty-fourth verses of the same chapter 
put the whole situation still more clearly: 
" The sea is come up upon Babylon : she is 
covered with the multitude of the waves 
thereof. . . And I will bring forth out of his 
mouth that which he hath swallowed up." 

It is evident, therefore, that the imagery 
which we find in the book — that of a great 
sea-monster first swallowing and then cast- 
ing out — is not peculiar to Jonah, and its 
application to Israel's captivity in Babylon 
and her return to Jerusalem was well un- 
derstood. 

196 



Zbc :f6ooft ot 5onab 

(5) In the Jonah story, not for a mo- 
ment does God turn aside from his pur- 
pose. Jonah, taught and disciplined by 
failure and reverses, is sent a second time 
to preach to Nineveh. In the history of Is- 
rael also, never once does God swerve from 
his purpose. He thwarts Israel in her de- 
signs for national aggrandizement and great 
wealth, punishes her for idolatry and other 
sins, and reduces her to a small remnant of 
her former self; but that remnant he dis- 
ciplines and teaches, and finally sends upon 
its mission to the Gentiles until that mis- 
sion finds consummation in Christ's apostles 
preaching to all nations. 

(6) In this remarkable narration Jonah, 
when commanded a second time to preach 
to Nineveh, obeys not only with reluctance, 
but with a spirit of selfishness. He does 
not want the Ninevites to repent; he does 
not want God to forgive them and love 
them as he forgives and loves Israel. In 
this respect Jonah is pictured precisely like 
the elder brother in Christ's parable of the 
Prodigal Son, who is jealous of the father's 
forgiveness of the younger brother. Just 
as in the elder brother Christ was portray- 
ing for the scribes and Pharisees their own 

197 



Zbc :Biblc mesaade tot filodetn tllanbcod 

hateful attitude toward the Gentiles, so the 
prophet in Jonah is portraying for Israel 
her own hateful attitude toward the heathen. 
The parallel between the Jonah story and 
the parable of the Prodigal Son is worthy 
of special notice, for the attitude of Jonah 
and the elder brother was precisely the atti- 
tude of the Jews toward the Gentiles. Even 
in our Lord's time the scribes and Pharisees 
could not think of the Gentiles as on the 
same plane of forgiveness with themselves, 
and they did not want them to enjoy the 
favor of God as fully as they did. Even to 
the apostles it was cause of astonishment 
that Gentiles as well as Jews received the 
Holy Spirit ; and Peter must receive a new 
revelation before he could say: " Of a truth 
I perceive that God is no respecter of per- 
sons: but in every nation he that feareth 
him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted 
with him" (Acts 10:34, 35). 

5. Truths Embodied 

The book of Jonah is the gospel of the 
Old Testament, but the gospel carried by an 
unwilling messenger. The question of a 
willing messenger to carry God's good news 
was a perennial one in the Old Testament, 

198 



Zbc :iBooft of 5onab 

and in all the Christian centuries it has been 
the battle-ground of unnumbered lives. Back 
of the recorded response of Abraham to 
God's call there was doubtless a struggle. 
Moses made numerous excuses, and sought 
to escape his mission. Isaiah, shrinking from 
the gospel-task, exclaimed : " Woe is me ! 
for I am undone; because I am a man of 
unclean lips " (Isa. 6:5); and only after his 
lips were cleansed, and he again heard God 
calling, " Whom shall I send ? and who 
will go for us ? " was he able to reply, 
" Here am I, send me." That the question 
of the willing messenger was present to the 
mind of Christ is evident both from his 
words : " My meat is to do the will of him 
that sent me, and to accomplish his work " 
(John 4:34), and also from his struggles 
in the wilderness and in the garden. It 
was the problem that troubled Peter as he 
entered the house of Cornelius, and that 
was still unsettled by Paul when God said 
to him, " It is hard for thee to kick against 
the pricks" (Acts 9:5). The problem of 
the willing messenger has constituted the 
battle-ground of every reformer, missionary, 
and minister in every century since Christ. 
Each messenger has first to conquer him- 

199 



tibe MUc tBlc00aQc tor moDctn fllanboo& 

self and bring himself to yield to the will 
of God. The gospel has always been in the 
heart of God for all men, but to secure will- 
ing messengers has been both God's battle 
and man's battle. Jonah is the unwilling 
messenger exhibited to the eyes of the 
world, and the exhibition reveals three great 
truths. 

(i) God's love is universal. His forgive- 
ness is not only for Jerusalem, but equally 
for Nineveh. This truth is taught else- 
where in the Old Testament, but only in 
the book of Jonah is it set forth with that 
power of concrete illustration which im- 
presses it indelibly upon the mind; just as 
the lesson of the Prodigal Son is taught 
in many places in the New Testament, but 
nowhere else with such power of concrete 
illustration as in Christ's parable. Gra- 
ciously does the mantle of God's charity 
cover the sins of the heathen in every line 
of the Jonah parable. On the ship all the 
heathen sailors pray, each to his own god. 
The emphasis of the narrative falls upon 
the truth that each prays in ignorance of 
the fact that his god is not the god of the 
sea, and therefore prayer to him is vain. 
When these sailors learn that Jonah's God 

200 



Zbc 3Booft of ^onab 

is God of the sea, they leave off prayer to 
heathen gods and pray to Jehovah. The 
picture of these heathen sailors is one of 
sincere men worshiping gods v^ho are im- 
potent to help them; of ignorant men 
who, when better informed, willingly and 
promptly follow the better information. 

A like picture of Nineveh is presented. 
The narrative reduces the sinfulness of the 
great city to the minimum. Indeed, it sim- 
ply mentions her sin at the beginning of the 
book in the words, "for their wickedness is 
come up before me." Such mention is 
necessary in order to justify Jonah's mis- 
sion at all. The emphasis, however, is not 
upon Nineveh's sin, but upon her greatness, 
upon the eagerness of the people to acknowl- 
edge their sins, and upon their readiness to 
repent. The dominant impression produced 
on the reader is that of a large city filled 
with throbbing humanity. One is made to 
see people, people, miles of people who are 
ignorant of Jehovah, eager for the words of 
his messenger, and ripe for the harvest of 
God. It is as when our Lord, looking with 
great compassion upon the shepherdless 
multitude, said, " The harvest indeed is 
plenteous, but the laborers are few " (Matt. 

201 



Zbc Mblc tMlcsBaQc fot tllodetn flilanbooD 

9:37). Nowhere in the Old Testament is 
there a more beautiful picture of the com- 
passionate love of God for all men than in 
this representation of Jonah's work in 
Nineveh. 

(2) A second truth which the Jonah 
story makes plain is that he who runs from 
his mission brings destruction both upon 
himself and others. Jonah is represented 
as sound asleep in the hold of the ship, un- 
aware of his danger, while the ship reels 
and creaks in the raging sea, and the sailors 
row in vain and pray in vain to bring it 
safe to land. Unless Jonah shall wake up, 
confess his sin, and yield himself a sacrifice 
for the sailors, all must go to the bottom 
together. 

How could the condition of Israel be 
more accurately represented? The nation 
was sound asleep spiritually, and oblivi- 
ous to her own danger. She must either 
give the knowledge of God to the nations 
or perish with the nations. She must make 
herself a sacrifice for the heathen or be des- 
troyed with the heathen, just as the church 
of Christ to-day must give the gospel to the 
world or be destroyed by worldliness. It is 
to be noted that the Jew is safe to-day only 

202 



among the nations who have the knowledge 
of God, and who received that knowledge 
through Judaism. But for the knowledge 
of God given to the Gentiles by Israel, Is- 
rael would have perished from the earth as 
the people of Nineveh and Babylon per- 
ished. Though she be scattered among all 
peoples, it is the knowledge of God given 
to others by her that has preserved her. 

(3) The third great truth in the book 
of Jonah is that of redemptive sacrifice; 
and it speaks eloquently for the clear- 
visioned inspiration of the prophet that we 
find this principle here. 

With blanched faces the sailors ask, 
"How shall we be saved from the raging 
sea ? " " Take me up," said Jonah, " and 
cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea 
be calm unto you " (Jonah 1:12). To avoid 
the necessity of such an act, the sailors lay 
to the oars to bring the ship to land, but 
without avail, and Jonah, the self-appointed 
sacrifice, is thrown overboard. It is to be 
noted that Jonah was cast into the sea with- 
out the least hope of rescue. Jonah, the 
Jew, made his life a sacrifice for the 
heathen sailors, and both they and he were 
saved. 

203 



^be astble fXlcssmc for flloDetn fllanboot) 

This lesson of self-giving was what Is- 
rael needed to learn, for she was seeking 
her own life, and running from the call of 
God, which was for her to spend her life to 
save the nations. 

In Jonah's sacrifice of himself is found 
the appositeness of Christ's reference to 
him. Christ, like Jonah, acted on the prin- 
ciple of self-giving to save others. Jonah 
sacrificing himself for the heathen sailors 
was expressive both of Israel's duty to the 
Gentiles and Christ's self-giving for the 
world. As Jonah's sacrifice involved three 
days and nights in the belly of the sea-mon- 
ster, so Christ's sacrifice involved his de- 
scent into the tomb for a like period. 

By his sacrifice Jonah saved not only the 
sailors, but himself as well. Unto them the 
sea became calm, while unto him there came 
unexpected deliverance. Without the cast- 
ing forth of Jonah on to dry land, this 
great narrative could neither have embodied 
the redemptive principle nor given us a 
foregleam of God's method with Christ, in- 
deed, with all men; for he that saves his 
own life loses it, while he that loses his 
life for others saves it. The great fish 
must not hold Jonah, just as the grave must 

204 



XLbc JBooh ot 5onab 

not hold Christ, for the redeemer must ever 
triumph with the redeemed. 

4. Universal Truths 

(i) The first of these three truths — that 
God's love is universal — is in all but com- 
plete possession of the modern mind. But 
just as Israel failed to hold the fact of 
God's love for her in proper balance with 
God's commands to her, so modern men are 
in imminent peril of luxuriating in what 
they seemingly believe to be the love of God 
for disobedient children, prodigal sons, and 
riotous livers, while they refuse responsi- 
bility and ignore God-given missions. 

(2) The second of these truths — that 
avoidance of one's mission means destruc- 
tion — ^was never more needed than by Chris- 
tians tOrday. It is a commonplace of con- 
viction among leaders in Christian work 
that the vigorous prosecution of missions 
is necessary to the preservation of the 
church, and especially to the preservation 
of its spiritual power. But this fact has 
not yet gripped the rank and file of the 
membership of the church, as it certainly 
must before there can come to the church 
as a whole that vigor and depth of spiritual 

205 



^be SBiblc (JticeeaQc tot tllodetn tllanboot) 

life of which it is capable, and which it 
must have in order to be the power that 
it ought to be in the world. 

In our day, however, there are more mis- 
sions to which Christians must address 
themselves than that of giving Christ to 
the heathen. Society is in need of the godly 
home, of civic righteousness, of political 
honor, of economic justice, of commercial 
integrity, and, in all of these relations, of 
men who are keepers and defenders of their 
weaker brothers. 

(3) The third of these truths — ^that of 
redemptive sacrifice — Christians have ever 
connected too exclusively with the person 
of Christ, forgetful of the fact that to be 
a Christian is to incarnate in one's own 
life this cardinal principle of Christ's life. 
Christians to-day must come to see that 
no Christian should live in luxury while 
Christ's cause, in whatever phase of it, is in 
poverty; that no Christian should live in 
unconcern while Christ's cause is in need; 
that no Christian should secure or hold pub- 
lic office by compromising principles, and 
through failure to achieve those beneficent 
ends for which the office was designed ; and 
that no Christian should achieve success in 

206 



the :fl3oolt of 5onab 

business under conditions which work injus- 
tice to any, or in any way degrade the lives 
of others. Redemptive sacrifice means that 
one throw himself into the breach and be 
the sufferer, the giver, the spender, the ad- 
vocate where the needs of others require 
it. One has well said that Christ comes to 
us, not with a redeeming doctrine, but as 
a redeeming person. The Christian also 
must be one who lives and works, not only 
with Christ's teaching about redemption 
upon his lips, but as a redeeming per- 
sonality. 



207 



Zl)e Morft of tbe ipropbcts 



XI 



I. The Prophets 

THE prophet is not one who foretells 
only, but one who speaks for another. 
Moses had Aaron as his prophet. (Exod. 
7: I.) To Jeremiah the Lord said: *' Thou 
shalt be as my mouth" (Jer. 15: 19), that 
is, the one who speaks my words. Elijah 
slew four hundred and fifty prophets of 
Baal, men who were the representatives 
and authoritative teachers of Baal. In the 
church at Antioch there were " prophets 
and teachers, Barnabas, and Symeon that 
was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, 
and Manaen the foster-brother of Herod 
the tetrarch, and Saul" (Acts 13:1). 
" Judas and Silas, being themselves also 
prophets, exhorted the brethren with many 
words " (Acts 15: 32). 

The Old Testament prophet was one who 
spoke for God. His speech might be the 
interpretation of a dream, as when Daniel 

211 



Zbc Xiblc aicsB^Qc tor fHoDecn fllanbooD 

interpreted the dream of Nebuchadnezzar; 
a rebuke for disobedience, as when Samuel 
rebuked Saul; upbraiding for sin, as 
when Nathan upbraided David; advice or 
warning in political affairs, as when Jere- 
miah advised and warned Josiah; cheer in 
discouragement, as in the glowing visions of 
Ezekiel; a picture of the coming redemp- 
tion, as in the last chapters of Isaiah; or 
any other word that God would speak 
through those whom he called and sent to 
speak in his name. 

While foretelling was not a large element 
in prophetic work, it was an element by no 
means to be overlooked. Matthew con- 
stantly quotes the prophets, and urges the 
fulfilment of prophecy as evidence that 
Jesus was the Christ. In the synagogue at 
Nazareth Christ himself, after reading from 
Isaiah, closed the book and said : " To-day 
hath this Scripture been fulfilled in your 
ears" (Luke 4:21). As Christ walked 
with the two disciples on the way to Em- 
maus, he interpreted to them the things in 
Moses and the prophets and in all the 
Scriptures concerning himself. (Luke 24: 
2y.) And when he appeared suddenly in 
the room where the Twelve were gathered 

212 



Zbc TlClorft of tbe ipropbete 

after his resurrection, he assured them that 
all things concerning him which were writ- 
ten in Moses and the prophets and psalms 
must be fulfilled. (Luke 24:44.) It is evi- 
dent, therefore, that while foretelling is 
only a small element in the work of the 
prophets, it is a very important element. 

When mention is made of the Old Testa- 
ment prophets we usually think of the great 
and true prophets — Moses, Samuel, Elijah, 
EHsha, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
Ezekiel, and several others. While these 
great and true prophets are the only ones 
that demand serious study, we shall better 
understand their position and work if we 
consider for a moment the history of what 
may be called the prophetic order. 

It was the custom of heathen kings to 
consult the gods through wise men — divin- 
ers, augurs, enchanters, sorcerers, charmers, 
consulters of familiar spirits, wizards, 
necromancers, in fact, through all who pos- 
sessed any knowledge of occult arts. Such 
were the men whom Pharaoh asked to in- 
terpret his dream before Joseph was called 
to interpret it; whom Nebuchadnezzar 
asked to interpret his dream before Daniel 
was called ; whom Pharaoh required to du- 

213 



Zbc Mblc fXlcee^QC for fHo^ern HQanbood 

plicate the signs wrought by ]Moses when 
he went to dehver Israel from Egypt. It 
will be recalled that when the Spirit of the 
Lord left King Saul, he consulted the witch 
of Endor. 

Contrary to this heathen custom, Moses 
declares that God's people shall not consult 
augury, sorcery, wizardry, and such like; 
but that the Lord God shall raise up unto 
them a prophet from among their brethren, 
into whose mouth God shall put his own 
words. If that prophet shall speak what 
God does not speak, or if he shall speak in 
the name of other gods, he shall die. (Deut. 
i8:iof.) We see then that somewhat 
loosely attached to the courts of heathen 
kings, there were certain prophetic orders 
of " wise men," called by different names ; 
and that from these orders Israel was com- 
manded wholly to depart, and to depend for 
guidance upon prophets whom God should 
raise up and authorize to speak in his name. 

In Samuel's time, about one thousand 
years before Christ, prophetic guilds were 
found in Israel, called " Sons of the 
Prophets." The heads of the guilds were 
called " fathers " ; the members, " sons." 
The history of these guilds is not wholly 

214 



^be inJlorft of tbc iptopbets 

clear, nor is their character altogether cer- 
tain. But there is no question that in Is- 
rael there arose large companies of prophets, 
who were more or less attached to the sanc- 
tuaries, and who were consulted by the 
kings in both public and private affairs.' 
On one occasion King Ahab called together 
four hundred of these prophets to secure 
their advice about going to war. 

It is not altogether clear how these 
numerous prophets were supported. The 
prophets of Baal were said to " sit at Jeze- 
bel's table." And it is probable that to some 
extent the prophets of Israel enjoyed the 
patronage of the kings, at least to the ex- 
tent of receiving gifts when they ren- 
dered service. This is indicated by the fact 
that when Naaman went to Elisha to be 
healed of his leprosy he carried a gift. 
And although the great prophet would ac- 
cept neither pay nor gift, Gehazi, his serv- 
ant, ran after Naaman on his departure, 
and asked a gift for two of the sons of 
the prophets, who had come to his master. 
This indicates that the sons of the prophets 
were in the habit of receiving gifts. Again, 
when Amos prophesied at Bethel, the priest 
of the sanctuary, being displeased with his 

215 



Zbc Mblc miesgafle tor fllot>ern fllanbooD 

prophecy, said : " O thou seer, go, flee thou 
away into the land of Judah, and there eat 
bread, and prophesy there " (Amos 7: 12). 
This would indicate that prophesying was 
at least a vocation by which one could earn 
his living. 

So much of historic background will help 
us to understand the distinction between 
true and false prophets. God did not call, 
nor did he speak through, all who attached 
themselves to these prophetic guilds. Some 
prophesied smooth things for pay, proph- 
esying as from the Lord what would 
please the king. The four hundred whom 
Ahab consulted about going to war, said: 
" Go up, for God will deliver it (Ramoth- 
gilead) into the hand of the king" (2 
Chron. 18:5). They knew that Ahab 
wanted to go to war and desired their ap- 
proval in doing so. These were false 
prophets. Jehoshaphat, however, who was 
consulting with Ahab, was suspicious of 
these smooth-tongued sycophants, and in- 
quired whether the king had other prophets. 
** There is yet one man by whom we may 
inquire of Jehovah," said Ahab, " but I 
hate him; for he never prophesieth good 
concerning me, but always evil. . . Let not 

216 



Zbc Morft of tbe propbet6 

the king say so" (2 Chron. 18:7), said 
Jehoshaphat ; and when Micaiah was called 
he delivered the message that God had 
given him, which was a prophecy exactly 
contrary to that of the four hundred false 
prophets. This is an example of the true 
prophet. 

The prophets of Israel whom God called 
and through whom he spoke, came from all 
classes of society, some from within the 
prophetic guilds, some from without. 
Isaiah was of the royal family; Jeremiah 
and Ezekiel were of the priestly order; 
while Amos was a shepherd and one of the 
common people. 

Among these true prophets there were 
those who by reason of their greatness rose 
above the others, just as Peter, James, and 
John rose above the other disciples; and 
Paul above the apostles ; and Savonarola, 
Luther, and Knox above most preachers and 
reformers; and the Wesleys, Whitefield, 
and Moody above most evangelists; and 
Washington and Lincoln above most states- 
men. Such prophets were Moses, Samuel, 
Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Eze- 
kiel; and also Amos, Micah, Hosea, and 
others of the minor prophets. 

217 



Zbc Miblc fXleeesigc for modem tilanbood 

geon. Christ gathers much history into a 
single sentence when he says to the scribes 
and Pharisees : " Woe unto you ! for ye 
build the tombs of the prophets, and your 
fathers killed them " (Luke ii : 47). 

(2) Social reformers. The prophets 
were also social reformers or preachers of 
righteousness. Just as in the Christian cen- 
turies, when conditions in the medieval 
church became intolerable, there arose a 
Luther to cry out against abuses ; and when 
in modern times a chilling paralysis crept 
over religious life, there arose an Edwards 
and the Wesleys to recall the people to more 
vital godliness; so also when Israel turned 
to idols, ignored the teachings of Jehovah, 
and forgot morals, prophets arose to de- 
nounce her sins, and to recall her to her 
duty and her mission. It is in such times 
that Micah accuses the judges of rendering 
decisions for reward, the priests of teaching 
for hire, and the prophets themselves of 
divining for money (Micah 3:11), and 
declares that because of such sins Zion shall 
be plowed as a field, Jerusalem shall become 
a ruin, and the mountain on which it stands 
a forest. (Micah 3 : 12.) It is in such times 
that Isaiah says : " Jerusalem is ruined, and 

220 



Zbc moth ot tbc Propbeta 

Judah is fallen; because their tongue and 
their doings are against Jehovah" (Isa. 
3:8). In such times also Amos pleads: 
" Seek good, and not evil. . . Hate the evil, 
and love the good, and establish judgment 
in the gate: . . Let justice roll down as 
waters, and righteousness as a mighty 
stream" (Amos 5: 14, 15, 24). 

(3) Religious reformers. The prophets 
were also religious reformers. Not only 
did the people frequently turn aside to the 
worship of Baal and other gods, but there 
were times when even the religious leaders 
became degenerate. Their perfunctory 
sacrifices were sometimes the merest for- 
malism, for the heart had gone out of 
worship. The priests were corrupt and the 
prophets were mercenary. Civil offenses 
were atoned for by the payment of a money 
fine, so that a man felt free to sin as much 
as he had money to atone for ; and it was a 
means of enrichment to the corrupt priests 
that the people sinned as much as possible. 
As always in degenerate times, religion be- 
came superstition, and in proportion as it 
did so, the people became corrupt. In the 
midst of such conditions the prophets strove 
for reformation by connecting religion with 

221 



Xlbc Bible filegsagc tor fDo^ctn tllanbooD 

2. The Work of the Prophets 

From what has already been said it will 
be seen that the work of the prophets may 
be conveniently described as that of states- 
men, social reformers, religious reformers, 
literary men, and foretellers of future 
events. 

( I ) Statesmen. The prophets were, first 
of all, statesmen. Since the Jewish nation 
was a theocracy, the king held his throne 
under God. And the prophet was God's 
spokesman, through whom the divine will 
was made known. To the king, therefore, 
these men came, saying, " Thus saith the 
Lord." According to the prophet's word the 
king was to go to battle, or refrain from 
battle; to rebel against the nation that op- 
pressed Israel, or to submit to oppression; 
to make alliance with a neighboring nation, 
or to refuse such alliance; to defend the 
city, or to submit to the enemy ; and always 
to cast down the high places, turn from his 
sins, and trust in Jehovah his God. It was 
as a patriot-statesman that Samuel reproved 
Saul for returning from battle with plunder 
that he was commanded to destroy; that 
Elijah reproved Ahab for Baal-worship; 

218 



Zbc IRHorft of tbe IPropbets 

that Isaiah warned Ahaz not to seek alHance 
with Assyria; and that Jeremiah under 
Josiah instituted many reforms. Repeat- 
edly we find these prophets insisting to the 
king that if he is obedient to Jehovah his 
throne will be established; but if not, he 
will be carried into captivity. 

On account of this statesmanship relation 
to the king the great prophets arise at spe- 
cial political crises. Thus when Assyria is 
threatening Israel, Amos prophesies that on 
account of her sins Israel shall be over- 
thrown and taken captive. When the king 
of Judah is being urged by other powers to 
resist Assyria, Isaiah warns the king not to 
make an alliance with Assyria, lest that alli- 
ance become an entering wedge of oppres- 
sion. Some of the prophecies of Jeremiah 
were uttered when the king of Babylon 
was besieging Jerusalem. 

In this statesmanship relation to the king 
the prophets are magnificent in their loyalty 
to God, and to the true interests of Israel. 
For their heroic patriotism and their far- 
sighted statesmanship they often suffered. 
Elijah was pursued by the wrathful Jeze- 
bel. Jeremiah was rewarded for his faith- 
ful warnings by confinement in a foul dun- 

219 



Zbc Mblc message tor filoDem nnanboo& 

geon. Christ gathers much history into a 
single sentence when he says to the scribes 
and Pharisees : " Woe unto you ! for ye 
build the tombs of the prophets, and your 
fathers killed them " (Luke ii : 47). 

(2) Social reformers. The prophets 
were also social reformers or preachers of 
righteousness. Just as in the Christian cen- 
turies, when conditions in the medieval 
church became intolerable, there arose a 
Luther to cry out against abuses ; and when 
in modern times a chilling paralysis crept 
over religious life, there arose an Edwards 
and the Wesleys to recall the people to more 
vital godliness; so also when Israel turned 
to idols, ignored the teachings of Jehovah, 
and forgot morals, prophets arose to de- 
nounce her sins, and to recall her to her 
duty and her mission. It is in such times 
that Micah accuses the judges of rendering 
decisions for reward, the priests of teaching 
for hire, and the prophets themselves of 
divining for money (Micah 3:11), and 
declares that because of such sins Zion shall 
be plowed as a field, Jerusalem shall become 
a ruin, and the mountain on which it stands 
a forest. (Micah 3 : 12.) It is in such times 
that Isaiah says : " Jerusalem is ruined, and 

220 



Ube Moth ot tbc ipcopbcta 

Judah is fallen; because their tongue and 
their doings are against Jehovah" (Isa. 
3:8). In such times also Amos pleads : 
" Seek good, and not evil. . . Hate the evil, 
and love the good, and establish judgment 
in the gate: . . Let justice roll down as 
waters, and righteousness as a mighty 
stream " (Amos 5 : 14, 15, 24). 

(3) Religious reformers. The prophets 
were also religious reformers. Not only 
did the people frequently turn aside to the 
worship of Baal and other gods, but there 
were times when even the religious leaders 
became degenerate. Their perfunctory 
sacrifices were sometimes the merest for- 
malism, for the heart had gone out of 
worship. The priests were corrupt and the 
prophets were mercenary. Civil offenses 
were atoned for by the payment of a money 
fine, so that a man felt free to sin as much 
as he had money to atone for; and it was a 
means of enrichment to the corrupt priests 
that the people sinned as much as possible. 
As always in degenerate times, religion be- 
came superstition, and in proportion as it 
did so, the people became corrupt. In the 
midst of such conditions the prophets strove 
for reformation by connecting religion with 

221 



^be M\)lc VHces^QC for modem manbooD 

righteousness, and by Insisting that forms 
of worship were empty and useless without 
right conduct. Thus Samuel insists that 
" To obey is better than sacrifice, and to 
hearken than the fat of rams" (i Sam. 
15:22); and Amos, looking into the very 
eyes of the servile priests, represents God 
as saying : '' I despise your feast days, and 
I will not smell in your solemn assemblies " 
(Amos 5:21). Hosea, to the same effect, 
declares in the name of Jehovah : *' I de- 
sired mercy, and not sacrifice, and the 
knowledge of God more than burnt-offer- 
ings " (Hosea 6:6). And Isaiah, looking 
upon the multitude of sacrifices which the 
people bring, says : " Bring no more vain 
oblations. . . Wlien ye spread forth 
your hands, I will hide mine eyes from 
you. . . Wash you, make you clean; put 
away the evil of your doings from before 
mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do 
well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, 
judge the fatherless, plead for the widow " 
(Isa. i:i3f.). With many such passages 
of reproof, warning, and denunciation the 
writings of the prophets are filled. These 
messengers of God insist that worship be 
conjoined with right conduct. 

222 



Ube TlQlorfi of tbe ipcopbetd 

(4) Literary men. The prophets and 
also the priests were the Hterary men of 
Israel. The fact has already been men- 
tioned that of late years biblical scholars 
have rendered a great service to Bible 
knowledge by separating the interwoven 
narratives from each other, and bringing 
them as nearly as possible to their original 
form. The scholars call some of these orig- 
inal narratives prophetic, others priestly; 
that is, some were written by prophets, 
others by priests. Who wrote the story of 
creation? the story of the flood? the 
stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and 
Joseph ? Prophets and priests. The names 
of many of them are not known, but their 
work bears the stamp of their characters, 
breathes their spirit, and reveals their point 
of view. 

Doubtless the book of Job is best classi- 
fied as a drama. Beyond question it was 
written by a prophet, for it has philosophic 
depth, and a freshness and pertinency to 
life that are perennial. Many of the psalms 
are by unknown authors, but they express 
that spiritual ardor, that abiding faith, and 
that deep yearning after God, which are 
characteristic of the prophets ; and some of 

223 



Zbc JBMc OlcssaQC for OloOent OlanbooD 

the psalms, as our Lord indicated, have 
foretelhng significance. (Matt. 22:44.) 
The writings with which we commonly asso- 
ciate the prophets are, of course, those 
books of the Bible which bear their names, 
and which we know as prophecies. The 
majority of these men of God, however, 
including the two great prophets, Elijah 
and Elisha, left no writings. But from 
the prophetic literature which has come 
down to us it is evident that the prophets 
were to Israel the interpreters of God's will, 
the rebukers of sin, the teachers of morals, 
the instructors of worship, the counselors 
of kings, the cheerers of her desponding 
hours, and the " lifters-up of her head " 
when she was crushed under the heel of 
tyranny. 

(5) Foretellers. The remaining element 
in the work of the prophets was that of 
foretelling. We place this last in order 
only because it is last in time in the sense 
that it increases in emphasis and amount 
toward the close of the prophetic era. 

a. This foretelling element first became 
definite for Israel with God's promise to 
Abraham that he would bless him and make 
him a blessing. This was a foretelling of 

224 



trbe Morft of tbc propbcts 

great significance, and reaching far into the 
future. Israel never ceased to beheve that 
under God she had a great national destiny. 
The most continuous and insistent plea of 
the prophets was for that righteousness 
which God demanded, in order that God 
might cease to defeat the nation in war, 
recall her people from captivity, and fulfil 
through them his purpose of establishing a 
kingdom of righteousness upon the earth. 
But Israel did not heed her prophets; her 
people forsook God's commandments; and 
neighboring nations led her into captivity. 

b. When at length there seemed no hope 
of the nation's realizing the purpose of God, 
the prophets began to speak of a " remnant " 
and to hold out hope that although the na~ 
tion failed to realize God's purpose, the 
remnant would succeed. Isaiah says : " Ex- 
cept Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a 
very small remnant, we should have been as 
Sodom" (Isa. 1:9); that is, utterly des- 
troyed. He insists that the day will come 
when a remnant of Israel shall not lean 
upon their oppressors, but upon the Lord 
(Isa. 10: 20), and that God shall bring back 
that remnant with a mighty hand and make 
a highway for them. (Isa. 11:16.) That 

Q 225 



^be Mblc meadage for flloDetn fllanbooD 

is, God shall ultimately realize his kingdom 
of righteousness on the earth through a 
small remnant of Israel, a remnant that 
shall give heed to God's commands. 

c. The later prophets constantly speak of 
"that day," the ''day of the Lord," the 
" great day." They are looking for God 
to come as he has never yet come, to come 
in a way that should mark the time of his 
coming as peculiarly his own. 

One cannot find in prophecy any clearly 
defined program indicating when or how 
the Lord was to come, or what the great 
day was to be like, except that it was to 
usher in a reign of righteousness and bring 
a condition of peace. Jeremiah says : " And 
they shall teach no more every man his 
neighbor, and every man his brother, say- 
ing, Know Jehovah ; for they shall all know 
me, from the least of them unto the greatest 
of them, saith Jehovah" (Jer. 31:34). 
" Holiness to the Lord " was to be written 
on the bells of the horses. The lion and the 
lamb were to lie down together. Although 
no clearly defined program is here an- 
nounced, yet there was a profound convic- 
tion, and an undying faith, that God was 
coming as he had never come before to 

226 



Zbc Moxfi of tbe iptopbets 

produce a condition of peace and righteous- 
ness hitherto unknown. 

d. At length this remnant of Israel which 
the prophets foresee, becomes individ- 
ualized and idealized into the *' righteous 
king," and the " servant of Jehovah." Jere- 
miah says : *' Behold, the days come, saith 
Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a 
righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king 
and deal wisely, and shall execute justice 
and righteousness in the land . . . and this 
is his name whereby he shall be called : Jeho- 
vah our righteousness" (Jer. 23:5, 6). 
Isaiah, prophesying of the kingly office of 
the Coming One, declares : " Unto us a child 
is born, unto us a son is given; and the 
government shall be upon his shoulder ; and 
his name shall be called Wonderful, Coun- 
sellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, 
Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his 
government and of peace there shall be no 
end " (Isa. 9 : 6, 7). And the second Isaiah, 
speaking of the righteous servant of Jeho- 
vah, says : " I will also give thee for a light 
to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my sal- 
vation unto the end of the earth" (Isa. 
49:6). And speaking further of the work 
that this righteous servant was to do, he 

227 



^be 3Bi\)lc meaaage tot (Dodem filanbooD 

says : " I have put my Spirit upon him ; he 
will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He 
will not cry nor lift up his voice, nor cause 
it to be heard in the street. A bruised 
reed will he not break, and a dimly burning 
wick will he not quench ; he will bring forth 
justice in truth ... I Jehovah . . . give thee 
for a covenant of the people, for a light of 
the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to 
bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, 
and them that sit in darkness out of the 
prison-house" (Isa. 42:1-7). And the 
same prophet, speaking of the method by 
which the righteous servant of Jehovah 
shall do his work, says : *' He was despised, 
and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows, and 
acquainted with grief: . . Surely he hath 
borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; 
. . But he was wounded for our transgres- 
sions, he was bruised for our iniquities ; the 
chastisement of our peace was upon him; 
and with his stripes we are healed. . . He 
was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he 
opened not his mouth ; as a lamb that is led 
to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before 
its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his 
mouth" (Isa. 53:3-7)- 

Thus we see how the prophets of the Old 

228 



^be Wox^ of tbe propbet5 

Testament looked steadily and expectantly 
toward the coming of God to establish his 
kingdom on the earth; how they looked 
upon righteousness as the condition of God's 
coming, and also as the ever-increasing fact 
among men when that kingdom should be 
established. We see how their view finally 
centered upon the servant of Jehovah until 
in their teaching they drew a perfect picture 
of the Christ, in whom prophecy finds ful- 
filment, not only as to the kingdom of God 
and its righteousness, but also as to the 
character of him who was to usher in that 
kingdom, and even as to the sacrificial death 
by which it was to be established. 



229 



PII 

Itbe mature of ffteeelanic 
Ipropbeci? 



XII 



MANY passages of Scripture might be 
cited, which, until recent years, 
were thought to have no other significance 
than that of pointing to Jesus Christ. Such 
passages as : " He (the seed of the woman) 
shall bruise thy head (the serpent's), and 
thou shalt bruise his heel" (Gen. 3:15), 
and " The chastisement of our peace was 
upon him; and with his stripes we are 
healed" (Isa. 53:5), as well as others of 
like import, were held to be Messianic. 
Such passages, while undoubtedly prophetic 
of Christ, may also have a broader sig- 
nificance. Indeed, it may be safely pre- 
sumed that every text in the Old Testament 
claimed as prophetic is a message, not only 
for the future, but also for the time in 
which it was spoken, and for some imme- 
diate need. 

Old Testament prophecy is something far 
more comprehensive than anything em- 
bodied in a few texts. All are familiar with 

233 



TLbc Bible VflcBetiQc tot modem filanboo5 

the fact that the whole history of Israel is a 
preparation for Christ. But a moment's 
reflection will make evident the fact that 
whatever is preparatory must also be pro- 
phetic. The excavated cellar, corded bricks, 
and piled lumber are prophetic of the house 
to be erected. Store windows filled with 
toys, and additional clerks to serve cus- 
tomers, are prophetic of Christmas. 

When considering the prophetic character 
of the Old Testament it is necessary to bear 
in mind what Christ is, viz., the means by 
zvhich a perfected humanity is to be secured. 
Throughout the entire history of Israel her 
hope of a perfected humanity never changed, 
but her conception of the means by which 
it was to be secured changed many times; 
and each change was made necessary by the 
converging lines of her history, which at 
length came to be definitely focused upon 
the God-man, Jesus Christ. 

The nature of prophecy in Israel cannot 
be fully understood without first inquiring 
for the Jew's fundamental conception of 
humanity. The answer is found in Genesis, 
where, in the first chapters, Adam and Eve 
are created perfect, placed in a delightful 
garden, given dominion over all created 

234 



(Tbe mature ot VSlcBBianic iPropbecis 

things, and made to walk and talk with God 
in happy fellowship. This was Israel's con- 
ception of a perfect humanity. From this 
perfect pair it was, of course, expected that 
a perfect progeny would come. This ex- 
pectation however failed. Under tempta- 
tion the holy pair fell and sin increased until 
Cain became guilty of murder. As time 
went on conditions became worse, until at 
the time of the flood all men are wicked ex- 
cept Noah. Thus far in the record the con- 
ception of a perfected humanity has not 
wavered, nor has the hope of recovering it 
wavered; but righteousness by descent 
proves a failure, and necessarily the means 
of securing a perfected humanity undergoes 
change. 

A new beginning is made with righteous 
Noah. But Noah, though righteous, is not 
the innocent man that Adam was; he was 
rather a man experienced and disciplined 
by a God-ruled world. The flood taught 
men the terrible consequences of sin; and 
it was presumed that men would be right- 
eous when they reflected on the ruin sin had 
wrought. Men, however, soon forgot, sin 
again became dominant, until in the nar- 
rative of the Tower of Babel the race is 

235 



Jibe 3Blble VRcesBiQc tor flloDcm fllanbooD 

represented as scattered to the four corners 
of the earth, and prone to evil. Again all 
means for securing a perfected humanity 
have failed; yet the ideal toward which all 
endeavors are bent remains the same. The 
seed of the woman is to bruise the serpent's 
head, but how the bruising is to be suc- 
cessfully achieved does not yet appear. 

So far, according to the record, prophecy 
has been on the broadest possible lines, 
dealing with the whole race, not only as 
end, but also as means. There are as yet 
neither nations nor individuals selected for 
the purpose of redeeming mankind. This 
part of the Bible record is not usually re- 
garded as prophetic, yet beyond question 
there lies deep within it the hope of the 
perfection of the race, a hope which the 
Jew of the Bible never for a moment re- 
linquishes. 

In the call of Abraham the broad lines, 
so far as they relate to the means of re- 
demption, begin to converge and to become 
more clearly defined. Abraham was called 
out, even from his own family, and set 
apart that from him might spring a right- 
eous nation, as numerous as the stars and 
as multitudinous as the sands, through 

236 



Zbc matute of fUeeeianic propbec^ 

which the whole race was to be redeemed 
and perfected in righteousness. In Abra- 
ham all the families of the earth were to be 
blessed. Here again the conception of a 
perfected humanity remains unchanged, but 
the means of securing that perfection has 
changed radically. God is now at work, 
not as before, equally in the whole race, 
but especially in and through a chosen peo- 
ple. Israel was to be a redeeming nation, 
a nation of priests standing between God 
and men, receiving in a special manner from 
God, and ministering in a special manner to 
men. For this purpose the priestly nation 
was not only chosen, but disciplined by the 
bondage in Egypt, by the wanderings in the 
wilderness, by the conquest of Canaan, and 
placed at the crossroads of the nations, 
until by war, trade, and numerous cap- 
tivities, the knowledge of Israel's God is 
wide-spread. 

But notwithstanding God's discipline and 
use of Israel, there is again seeming failure 
in Israel's mission. A brief hundred years 
spans the duration of the united kingdom. 
That kingdom, which was set up under 
Saul and rose to its zenith under David, 
declined to its fall at the end of Solomon's 

237 



tibe Xiblc aiCBeaQc for (DoDecn fHanbooD 

reign. The armies of Assyria and Babylon 
soon crushed the divided kingdom, and the 
people were carried into captivity. Thus, 
in its work of redeeming humanity, the 
kingdom failed. Yet it did not fail, as we 
shall see. It is as when Gideon's army was 
too large for the Lord to use, and one com- 
pany after another was sent home until 
only three hundred remained. In her cap- 
tivity, however, Israel's hope of redeeming 
humanity was not abandoned, but her con- 
ception of means was again radically 
changed. 

The nation had not been long in Baby- 
lonian captivity when her prophets began 
to declare that a remnant should return to 
Jerusalem to rebuild the holy city and the 
temple. By permission of Cyrus a rem- 
nant did return, and the prophets began to 
teach, not according to the former belief, 
that redemption was to come to the race 
through the whole nation, but rather 
through this small remnant. Out of the 
stress of captivity is developed a new con- 
ception of the means of redemption, a con- 
ception as much narrower than the one 
which preceded it as the remnant was 
narrower than the nation. Thus Israel's 

238 



ZTbe ]Qatuce of flledeianic propbec^ 

changing conception of the means of re- 
demption exhibits converging lines. First 
it embraced the whole race, then a chosen 
nation, and later simply a righteous rem- 
nant. 

The lines, however, were to converge still 
more, for the prophets did not hold the 
idea of a redeeming remnant long before 
an individualizing process began, by which 
the idea of the suffering remnant soon 
passed into that of the " Suffering Servant 
of Jehovah," " Immanuel," " Prince of 
Peace," " The Anointed of the Lord," the 
"Elect One," the "Righteous One," the 
"Holy Lord," the "Son of God," the 
" Messiah," and other like personifications, 
some of which are found in the Apocrypha. 
All eyes were now turned toward the future, 
so that when Christ came not only the Jews 
were expecting one to come, but the Gen- 
tile nations as well. 

Thus we see that Christ was foretold 
not simply by a few scattered passages of 
Scripture, but by the whole trend and sweep 
of Jewish thought and history, which run 
on toward and converge upon the Saviour. 
The passages which more particularly point 
to Christ are but the bursting forth of the 

239 



trbe MMc aiceediQc toe moDem HQanbooD 

deep and continuous consciousness of the 
nation. Jewish history reached its goal in 
Christ. Upon him the nation's thought, 
conviction, consciousness of mission, and 
world-wide expectation were focused. In 
him at length the means by which the race 
was to be redeemed and perfected came to 
clearness of expression, fulness of defini- 
tion, and was manifested to all the world. 
It is worthy of note that precisely in keep- 
ing with these converging lines of redemp- 
tive history is the fact that the gospel was 
finally given to the Gentiles by a few spe- 
cially chosen and trained Israelites, whom 
we call apostles. 

To recapitulate : The fundamental Jewish 
conception of life was that of a perfected 
humanity, living on a garden-like earth, and 
enjoying full fellowship with God. The fact 
of sin made redemption necessary before 
perfection could be realized. From Adam 
to Noah the means employed to secure per- 
fection was descent from a righteous pair, 
but this method failed. From Noah to 
Abraham the method was descent from a 
righteous man (Noah, see Gen. 7:1) plus 
the instruction which came from the dev- 
astations of sin as seen in the flood; but 

240 



tbe nature ot fnessianic ipropbecis 

this method also failed, as is evident from 
the scattering of the people from Babel. 
In like manner Israel as a whole failed to 
become a redeeming nation. Even the suf- 
fering, sin-bearing remnant failed. At last 
the individualized remnant, though called 
by various names, produced wide-spread 
expectation of the Coming One, and that 
Coming One was Christ, the Redeemer and 
Perfecter of humanity. 

I have used the word " failed " only for 
clearness and to avoid confusing the mind 
by dealing with too many ideas at the same 
time. In any method that marks progress, 
however, there is really no failure. The 
kindergarten does not fail, though it does 
not perform the work of the grades. The 
graded school does not fail, though it does 
not give a high-school diploma. The high 
school does not fail, though it does not 
grant a college degree. Each school marks 
a step in advance, and each prepares for 
that which is to follow. So also with 
every stage of progress in revelation and 
redemption. Complete success will be real- 
ized only when the work of Christ is 
finished, but every step in Israel's history, 
as also every stage of her thought, was 

R 241 



tibe JSible dleedase fot flQoOecn fnanbooO 

both a preparation for him and a prophecy 
of his coming. 

In connection with this conception of 
Messianic prophecy, it is important to note 
two additional facts, which run like golden 
threads of prophetic foresight through the 
whole fabric of Israel's history. The first 
is the intimate relation of the divine and 
human in Israel's life, which is prophetic of 
the God-man; the second is the remarkable 
basis of religious ideas and ethical convic- 
tions of which Israel became possessed, a 
basis which marked the fulness of time for 
Christ's coming, and rendered his teachings 
intelligible and effective. 

I. The intimate relation of the divine and 
human in Israel's life is indicated by every 
circumstance and teaching that points to the 
facts of revelation and inspiration. Not to 
go farther back than the patriarchs, many 
people migrated from Mesopotamia to the 
west, but Abraham migrated at the call of 
God, and with the consciousness of a God- 
given misson. Many slaves were sold into 
Egypt, but Joseph was conscious that God 
was with him, and was realizing a purpose 
through him. Many had been reared in the 
court of Pharaoh, but Moses was conscious 

242 



^be mature of (MlCBSimic ptopbeci? 

of God's call to deliver his people. Israel 
never forgot her bondage in Egypt, her dis- 
cipline in the wilderness, her entrance into 
Canaan, and her conquest of the land; but 
the one thing uppermost in her remembrance 
was the presence and help of Jehovah and 
the consciousness that by the power of God 
she was achieving divine ends. From Is- 
rael's later history it is evident that a few 
more prosperous reigns like those of David 
and Solomon, or those of Jeroboam II in 
Israel and Uzziah in Judah, would have des- 
troyed the spiritual life of the nation and 
caused Jehovah to depart from her. It re- 
quired disaster — famine, pestilence, defeat 
in war, captivity, and all but destruction of 
national life — to keep Israel close to God, 
to hold her steadily on her way, and to de- 
velop in her the necessary redemptive ideas. 
In all her experiences the uppermost fact in 
Israel's consciousness was her connection 
with God, the merging of her interests with 
God's interests, the subjection of her will 
to God's will, and the confidence that she 
under God was to be the savior of the 
world. Nothing in her life did she consider 
apart from God; nothing did she hope to 
achieve except in conformity with the will 

243 



XLhc Mblc me00ade fot (lloDem tllanbooD 

of Jehovah. Such an identification of the 
human with the divine is prophetic of the 
human and divine in Christ, and in Christ 
the union came to full expression. Were it 
pertinent to the subject at this point, it 
could easily be shown that the complete 
union of the divine and human in Christ is 
in its turn prophetic of the ultimate complete 
union of the divine and human in the race. 
Christ is but the " first-fruits." 

2. The adequacy of the preparation for 
Christ is evidenced by the conceptions of 
redemption which the Jews held ere Christ 
was born: 

(i) God was regarded as a savior, one 
who redeemed his people from all trouble, 
and cleansed them from all sin. 

(2) The suffering of the righteous for 
the wicked became a familiar fact, and by 
the prophets was held to be God's method 
in salvation. Tenacious, indeed, was the 
idea that suffering meant sin in the sufferer, 
but the book of Job was written to combat 
this very conception, and in Isaiah's proph- 
ecies vicarious suffering was clearly taught. 

(3) The fact that the few were to suffer 
for the many was also familiar to the later 
prophets. This idea seems to have devel- 

244 



Zbc Ulatute o( mesdianfc propbecis 

oped directly out of the Babylonian cap- 
tivity. Grasping this idea, the prophets 
hastened to individualize the few and to 
teach that the " Coming One " was to bear 
the sins of all. 

(4) Redemption was to embrace all 
men. Notwithstanding the narrowness of 
the Judaism of Christ's time, the higher 
spirits in Israel never lost sight of this 
fact. It is found in Jonah's preaching to 
Gentile Nineveh, in the prophet's vision of 
all nations hastening to Jerusalem to wor- 
ship the God of Israel, and in many glowing 
pictures of universal peace and righteous- 
ness. 

(5) Peace was to come to the world not 
by the sword, not by powerful armies, but 
by one who should smite with the rod of his 
mouth, by wisdom, by love, and by the 
knowledge of God. 

(6) The righteousness of men was not 
to be compelled by outward law, but was to 
spring from the impulses of the heart, 
where the law should be written. The ulti- 
mate and effective conquest was to be the 
conquest of the heart. 

(7) Moreover, in the great salvation that 
was to come, God was to take the initiative. 

245 



^be :Biblc tJRc^e&Qc tot modern (ilanbood 

When Israel's national life was blotted out, 
and the future was filled with gloom, Jere- 
miah looked for Jehovah to take the initia- 
tive in teaching his people, forgiving their 
sins, bringing them from their captivity, and 
reestablishing them as a nation. Already 
the idea is dominant not only that man seeks 
God, but that God seeks man. 

(8) Long and tenaciously did the Jews 
cling to the conviction of national salva- 
tion, salvation on the ground that they 
were the " seed of Abraham." When Moses 
pleaded that he might be blotted out of 
God's book in order that the nation might 
be saved, God answered : " Whosoever hath 
sinned against me, him will I blot out of 
my book" (Exod. 32:33). In this sen- 
tence is found the conception of individual 
sin and punishment, a conception, as the 
passage indicates, closely connected with 
national prosperity, and the realization of 
national hopes. Although the idea of re- 
viving the nation never perished from the 
Jewish heart, the individual came more and 
more into prominence, especially in the 
minds of those not in authority, so that 
when Christ came and dealt with the in- 
dividual, the transition from that of national 

246 



^be IQatute of ttlcsBianic prcpbecis 

to that of individual salvation had already 
been made comparatively easy. 

(9) Even the conception of a future ex- 
istence, in which sin was to be punished 
and righteousness rewarded, is found in the 
Apocrypha. 

Thus it is seen that no conception of 
truth necessary as a foundation for Christ's 
work was lacking. All the ideas thus men- 
tioned, as well as many others, had been re- 
vealed to the Jews, and by them wrought 
out into experience. All were a prepara- 
tion for the Christ, and each was a prophecy 
of him. Before Jesus was bom in Bethle- 
hem the prophets declared that he was to 
be the righteous one, the humble one, the 
suffering one, the serving one, the redeem- 
ing one, the triumphant one, the ruling one, 
the one who should save his people from 
their sins, fill the earth with righteousness 
as the waters fill the sea, and transform the 
deserts of life into gardens. 

The prophetic conceptions thus briefly 
outlined have peculiar significance for the 
modern mind, for the continuity of these 
conceptions appears in our century in three 
outstanding facts: The hope of social re- 
generation, belief in the union of the human 

247 



Zbc :Bi\)\c tJflcsBsiQc tot modem tilanboot) 

and the divine, and the conviction that Jesus 
Christ is the source of social renewal. 

First, the hope of social regeneration. In 
Christ's time the Jews had all but aban- 
doned hope of regeneration for the Gentiles, 
a hope which at most had never been wide- 
spread among them. Christ's apostles, and 
those who came after them for three hun- 
dred years, looked for a speedy second com- 
ing of Christ and the consummation of all 
mundane affairs. After the Roman Em- 
pire became nominally Christian and Chris- 
tianity was well-nigh swallowed up in world- 
liness, the more devout spirits, in hope of 
achieving personal salvation, abandoned so- 
ciety for the hermit's cell and the cloister. 
The succeeding thousand years was a time 
of unrest and upheaval, including the Re- 
vival of Learning, the Reformation, the 
making of theologies, the developing of 
philosophies, the multiplication of inven- 
tions, the prosecution of exploration and 
colonization, with corresponding spiritual 
unrest, in which dominant aims were, on 
the part of Catholics, the integrity of the 
Church; on the part of Protestants, the in- 
tegrity of doctrine ; and on the part of both, 
personal salvation in the world to come. 

248 



dbe Ulatuce of Oileesianic pcopbccis 

Ours, on the other hand, is the social cen- 
tury. Its dominant spiritual purpose is so- 
cial regeneration. We believe in personal 
salvation no less than former Christian 
centuries, but we believe that personal sal- 
vation can be secured only by one of Christ's 
spirit who loses his life in bettering his 
fellows. We also believe in the kingdom of 
God hereafter no less than former centuries, 
but we believe in building the kingdom of 
God here and now, and that only those who 
promote it here will enter it hereafter. In 
a word, our century, while holding in bal- 
ance and proportion the dominant ideas 
which former centuries have wrought out 
one by one, has grasped anew and in a 
larger way the dominant conception of the 
Messianic teaching, viz., that humanity is 
to be perfected not in some other world, but 
in this world, and not in an isolated indi- 
vidual here or there, but as a whole. That 
this is the growing conception and the in- 
creasing passion of our age is manifest in 
our changing religious ideas, the increasing 
sensitiveness of our social conscience, our 
demand for civic righteousness and com- 
mercial integrity, and in numberless en- 
deavors to benefit the masses. 

249 



/ 



c;be JBiblc flUcsaage for fllo^crn ttlanbood 

The second outstanding fact which closely 
unites the prophetic conceptions to the 
thinking of our century is the union of the 
human and divine. Philosophy has de- 
veloped its theories of pluralism, dualism, 
and monism, each having passed through 
many phases. But no philosophy promises 
to find permanence in human thinking which 
denies the personality of the human spirit, 
the personality of the Creator of the human 
spirit, or the vital union of the two. And 
so in our philosophy to-day we are talking 
about the immanence of God in nature and 
man, about all the natural processes with 
which science deals being the immediate ac- 
tivity of the supernatural within the nat- 
ural, about our world being at heart a 
spiritual world. After having weighed 
many philosophies in the balance only to 
find them wanting, we are coming again, 
only with a more comprehensive view, to 
the prophetic conception of the union of 
the divine and human as that union is seen 
consummated in the God-man, Christ Jesus, 
and as we believe it will ultimately be con- 
summated in the race. 

The third outstanding fact which connects 
the prophetic conceptions with our think- 

250 



^be Ulatuce of (lled0ianic ptopbecis 

ing is the conviction that Jesus Christ is the 
source of social renewal. Our century is 
fairly bursting with emphasis upon this fact. 
" Back to Christ " has of late been a familiar 
and favorite watchword. Why back to 
Christ? Because the doctrines forged on 
the anvil of contending centuries will neither 
save individuals nor ameliorate human con- 
ditions. Both processes require the per- 
sonal, living, and present Christ. And we 
must know Christ as he was in order to 
know him as he is, and in order to bring 
him into vital relations to present needs. 

A practical and efficient Christianity is 
demanded of the church to-day, and why? 
Because our century cannot believe in a 
Christianity that saves an individual with- 
out inspiring that individual to do good to 
his fellows; and our century does believe 
that when Jesus Christ dominates the life 
of any man that man will inspire others 
to Christliness. 

No Utopia has solved the social question, 
and the more earnestly social reformers 
have striven to ameliorate human condi- 
tions the more clearly have they seen that 
the fundamental need is the renewal of the 
human heart. The emphasis falls increas- 

251 



Zbc :Biblc aiceetiQc for modern fHanbooD 

ingly, therefore, upon Christ's redemption 
of the individual as a social method, and 
upon renewed society as a society of re- 
deemed individuals. 

Thus it appears that the controlling con- 
ceptions of the Old Testament Messianic 
teaching have come to be the dominant con- 
ceptions of our own day, with the perfection 
of humanity the dominant world-hope and 
the God-man the central world- fact. 



252 



Cbrist tbc ]fulfiller of ipropbcc? 



XIII 



IN the preceding chapter it was pointed 
out that Christ fulfilled prophecy, not 
only in the restricted sense of fulfilling spe- 
cific predictions, but in the broad sense of 
fulfilling the whole trend and sweep of the 
Old Testament Scriptures. In Christ's Ser- 
mon on the Mount his repeated assertion, 
" But I say unto you," rings clear and 
strong over against the statement, ** It hath 
been said by them of old time." He held 
the Old Testament as a half-truth destined 
to be completed by himself. Its partial 
ideas he supplements; its inadequate ideals 
he completes; its germinal truths he brings 
to bloom; its embryonic laws he brings to 
birth in general principles. In the Old Tes- 
tament all the revelation is partial. In 
Christ all is complete. This fact is no- 
where better seen than in a comparison of 
the early Bible narratives with the teachings 
of Christ. To this comparison we direct 
attention as follows: 

255 



tTbe Xiblc OIcbb^qc for flloDcrn Olanboob 

J. The Comparison 

(i) The great lesson of the narrative of 
creation is that Jehovah is Creator. In 
Christ the Creator becomes the Father; 
men are his children; and Father and chil- 
dren are bound together, or ought to be, by 
ties of tenderest love. 

(2) In the narrative of the temptation 
Adam and Eve fail to stand the test and 
are driven from the presence of God, but 
the battle is not over. In our Lord man 
succeeds in the temptation struggle. And 
the success is not only Christ's individually, 
but through him the success of those who 
are his. 

(3) In the story of Cain and Abel the 
demand is made that worship be united with 
right conduct. In Christ worship and right 
conduct are seen in indissoluble union. 
There is no place in his life where worship 
ends and conduct begins. All is worship; 
all is conduct. The two are completely 
merged. Christ was both Son of God and 
Son of man, and his Godward and man- 
ward relations were equally sacred. He 
worshiped God most ardently when he 
served men most devotedly. 

256 



Cbrist tbe Jfulfiller of ipropbccs 

(4) The narrative of the flood repre- 
sented God as distinguishing between the 
righteous and the wicked, as separating one 
from the other, and as bringing each to dif- 
ferent ends. But the teaching of the narra- 
tive was only in embryo, for the end of 
the wicked was physical death, while the 
reward of the righteous was continued life 
and blessings. This teaching Christ com- 
pletes by lifting it into the spiritual and 
eternal. He makes clear the fact that the 
wicked die a spiritual death, that the right- 
eous live eternally, and that between the two 
a great gulf is fixed, across which there is 
no passing. 

(5) Abraham was an obedient man who 
never questioned God, and never counted 
the cost of obedience. But Christ brought 
obedience to its highest and fullest expres- 
sion by paying the highest price for it, viz., 
by giving up his life on the cross. And 
Christ's obedience was not like Abraham's, 
for physical and temporal blessings, but in 
the highest sphere and for the noblest ends. 

(6) Jacob was God's wrestler, the man 
who wanted God's blessings, though he 
wrestled against securing them in God's 
way. Beside Jacob, wrestling all night with 

R 257 



Zbc Xiblc medsaae for filodern fllanbooD 

the unnamed one at the ford of Jabbok, 
one should place Christ, wrestling alone in 
the Garden of Gethsemane; for in each 
case it is the wrestling of one who desires 
to obey God, but marvels at God's re- 
quirement. In each case the wrestling is 
over the same problem, though in different 
form, the problem of God's ways with one 
whom he would use for the redemption of 
his fellow men. Christ's wrestling in Geth- 
semane is the climax of a struggle which 
began in his temptation in the wilderness, 
and from which doubtless he was never 
free. " Nevertheless not my will, but thine, 
be done," spoken in his bloody sweat, has 
ever since been, and doubtless will ever be, 
the pattern of wrestling and submission for 
every man as he faces the mysteries of 
God's ways as God seeks to use him for 
the redemption of men. 

(7) In the life of Joseph we saw the 
faithfulness of God meeting the faithful- 
ness of man. But in the teaching and life 
of Christ this truth receives its fullest ex- 
pression. How could it be better uttered 
than in the words : " The very hairs of your 
head are all numbered. . . Ye are of more 
value than many sparrows. . . If then God 

258 



Cbriet tbe Julfillcr of l^ropbecij 

so clothe the grass, which is to-day in the 
field, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; 
how much more will he clothe you, O ye 
of little faith?" (Matt. 10:30, 31; Luke 
12:28.) How could one more fully trust 
God's faithfulness than did Christ, when 
on his way to death he bade Peter put up 
his sword, saying : " Thinkest thou that I 
cannot now pray to my Father and he shall 
presently give me more than twelve legions 
of angels?" (Matt. 26:53.) And how 
could the teaching be better verified than 
in the fact that though Christ went to the 
cross, God made that cross a throne. Our 
Lord was buried in the tomb, but God 
raised him up, and proved him to be his 
only begotten Son by the resurrection from 
the dead. Paul's soul kindles with the fact 
that God hath highly exalted Christ, who 
was faithful unto death, even the death of 
the cross, and hath given him a name that is 
above every name, that at the name of Jesus 
every knee should bow. Never was there 
faithfulness in man Hke the faithfulness 
of Christ; and no expression of God's 
faithfulness surpasses or equals his faith- 
fulness in raising Christ from the dead and 
enthroning him in the heart of the world. 

259 



tlbe Mblc iHceeuQc for filoDem (llanbood 

(8) In the account of Israel's deliverance 
from Egypt we come for the first time upon 
the fact of redemption. The form is crude, 
for it was redemption primarily from phys- 
ical bondage. In Jesus Christ both the idea 
and the fact of redemption stand complete. 
The idea is that of redemption from sin, 
which includes everything from which man 
needs to be redeemed, everything physical, 
mental, social, spiritual. The fact is the 
all-sufficient Redeemer, whom God sent into 
the world " that whosoever believeth on 
him should not perish, but have eternal 
life " (John 3 : 16) ; and who himself said, 
" I have finished the work which thou gav- 
est me to do" (John 17:4); and when 
about to die on the cross, again declared, 
" It is finished " (John 19 : 30). 

If we now enumerate the teachings of 
these early narratives which have been ful- 
filled in Jesus Christ, we are surprised that 
so little that is really fundamental to spir- 
itual life is wanting: 

a. God, the Creator, is our Father, b. 
The battle in one's soul can be won through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. c. The worship of 
God the Father must include brotherly treat- 
ment of our fellow men. d. The righteous 

260 



Cbrigt tbe JFultlUer ot t>tophccQ 

and the wicked shall be separated, and shall 
meet different ends. e. God abundantly 
blesses him who does not hesitate to pay 
the price of obedience. /. The blessings to 
which we aspire must be secured in God's 
way. g. God is faithful to those who are 
faithful to him, and none need hesitate to 
trust him, even unto death, h. God re- 
deems men by sending a Redeemer who 
must suffer for others, and must bear their 
sins in his own body and in his own heart. 

2. Christ's Faith 

It only remains to point out Christ's faith 
in the final consummation of his redemptive 
work, and the partial realization of that 
faith in history. 

While Christ taught clearly that the Old 
Testament was fulfilled in himself, com- 
paratively little emphasis fell from his own 
lips upon this fact. His look was not back- 
ward, but forward; his emphasis, not upon 
the completion of the old order, but upon 
the beginning of a new order. His king- 
dom was " at hand," that is, just beginning. 
It was like a mustard-seed, the beginning of 
a gradual and strong growth; like yeast 
placed in meal, the beginning of a leavening 

261 



Zbc JSible SilcsstiQc for fnlo^ern filanbood 

process. The sending of a few apostles to 
evangelize a world was a beginning. Such 
facts — a few only of many that might be 
adduced — clearly indicate Christ's forward 
look and confident expectation. 

Precisely what Christ hoped for, and had 
confidence in, was, as with the prophets of 
the Old Testament, a redeemed and per- 
fected humanity. He sent forth his apos- 
tles to preach himself as the Redeemer who 
had power to forgive men and to renew 
their hearts. The perfection to which men 
were to be brought was the perfection seen 
in him. Men were to come to him, take 
his yoke, learn of him, follow him, love 
as he loved, sacrifice as he sacrificed, obey 
as he obeyed, and minister as he ministered. 
They were to be meek like him, like him to 
find God's will as necessary as food, and 
like him to make God's rule among men 
their first interest and constant effort. Be- 
yond question Christ looked forward to the 
time when all men should be thus minded. 

Just as in the Old Testament the redemp- 
tive process seemed periodically to meet with 
defeat, and even the conception of a per- 
fected humanity to be lost sight of, only 
however to burst forth again enlarged, both 

262 



Cbriat tbe Sfninilcx ot propbecs 

in conception and in sphere of endeavor ; so 
in the centuries since Christ, the processes 
of redeeming society have seemed period- 
ically to lag, and even to turn back, while 
the fundamental conception of Christ was 
all but lost sight of; yet after each such 
submergence Christ's conception of a re- 
deemed humanity has burst upon the minds 
of men enlarged and clarified. 

That one himself is to be redeemed and 
ultimately perfected is the least of a twen- 
tieth-century Christian's thought; just as 
the fact that Christ was to be glorified was 
the least of Christ's thought. To-day the 
Christian who is alive to the things of 
Christ, over and above the great fact of 
personal salvation, even over and above all 
efforts to bring men to personal acceptance 
of Christ, is thinking of and striving for so- 
cial redemption — ^the redemption of busi- 
ness, politics, laws, institutions; the re- 
demption of men's aims, ambitions, desires, 
and strivings. 

Volumes would be required to detail the 
redemptive process during the Christian cen- 
turies. It is sufficient for our purpose here 
to indicate a few of the great evils to which 
Christian civilization is now a stranger, or 

263 



Zbc Btblc ffiles^ase tor fBloDcm fHlanboo5 

vvhich it has placed under the social ban: 
Slavery, serfdom, wars of conquest, pillage, 
exposure of infants, gladiatorial contests, 
adultery, gambling, drunkenness, prostitu- 
tion, and many others. 

God's purpose to perfect humanity, which 
is traceable in the Old Testament, the New 
Testament, and in the Christian centuries, 
was never so evident as it is to-day; and 
never were so many and such varied forces 
operative to achieve this " one continuous 
purpose." The prophecy of our century 
is that Christ shall see of the travail of his 
soul and shall be satisfied, and that the 
kingdom of this world shall become the 
kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. 
Of this fact the modern Christian can feel 
reasonably certain. And surely it ought to 
fire his soul with enthusiasm for the Re- 
deemer with whom he is at work, and for 
the work which the Redeemer and the re- 
deemed are doing together. 



264 



Zl)c Significance of 3e6U6 Cbriet 
for tbe fiDo&ern man 



XIV 



IN the foregoing chapters Christ js seen 
to be the consummation of the Old Tes- 
tament, and to have come in the fulness of 
time. It will not be deemed out of place, 
therefore, to add to a discussion which holds 
Christ as its goal, a concluding chapter on 
" The Significance of Jesus Christ for the 
Modern Man." 

I. The Fulness of Time 

It may be asked. What constituted the 
" fulness of time " for the coming of Christ ? 
This question is nowhere answered in the 
Scriptures. It is customary to find the 
answer in the Hebrew preparation, with 
its well-developed ideas of God, man, and 
duty ; in the Greek preparation of language, 
literature, and philosophical ideas; and in 
the Roman preparation of national unifica- 
tion, roads, laws, and government. But 
there is a fulness of time more vital to 
Christ's work than any of these, and more 

267 



Zbc Mblc fnessa^e tor filoDern ttlanbooD 

important for the kingdom of God in the 
world than all of them, a fulness of time 
which lies at the center of the historic 
process, and points the way to Christ's 
world-significance. 

For many the magic word of the twen- 
tieth century is " evolution." The applica- 
tion of the theory of evolution not only to 
natural phenomena, but to human history 
as well, has created great disturbance in 
religious thought by changing somewhat the 
theological view-point. 

It need not be pointed out here that the 
evolutionary principle, even in the physical 
world, is far from proved, except in a 
modified sense. But the fact needs em- 
phasis that when applied to the history of 
man the evolutionary principle of gradual 
and systematic unfolding does not hold, ex- 
cept in the most fundamental facts of the 
soul, and chiefly in the central fact of in- 
creasing ethical soul-content. Just as the 
progress of the Gulf Stream is not in the 
ripples and eddies upon its surface, but in 
the deep and resistless current beneath, so 
the evolutionary progress of nature is not 
in the short seasonal changes which vary in- 
finitely, but in the life that persists through 

268 



Significance of 5e0UB for tbe nQoDern fHlan 

them and is modified by them. It is this 
life that evolves and comes ever to higher 
expression and more complete adjustments. 
So also in human history. There is little 
if any discernible evolution in historic events 
until we probe to the deeper things of the 
soul. To be sure, there are, as in nature, 
what may be called seasonal growths, as 
in Greek culture, Italian art, English litera- 
ture, the French Revolution, and American 
government and industry. In such historic 
periods we can trace the starting of the 
sap, the bursting of the bud, the growth of 
leaf and blossom, the maturing of seed, and 
the falling of autumn leaves. Such seasonal 
growths are found also in the Jewish re- 
ligion, the early Christian church, the Ger- 
man Reformation, Puritanism, and other 
movements. But Greek culture and Italian 
art do not keep on advancing; the Eliza- 
bethan age in English literature does not 
grow more Elizabethan; the French Revo- 
lution is followed by reaction. Likewise in 
religion, Judaism rises and falls; early 
Christianity degenerates into the supersti- 
tion of the Dark Ages ; the German Refor- 
mation becomes stereotyped in church form- 
alism; English Puritanism is dissipated in 

269 



tTbe Mblc (nessagc for (lloOern ttlanbood 

many directions, but does not become more 
Puritan. 

Thus any particular historic movement 
exhibits only a seasonal development — 
rise, growth, decay. In view of what went 
before no one could predict the Dark Ages. 
No one can account for the sudden out- 
burst of Italian art in the fifteenth cen- 
tury, or of invention in the nineteenth cen- 
tury. Much less can historic characters be 
accounted for. One would expect Moses 
at the end of Israel's history, not at its be- 
ginning; the great prophets as the result of 
growing schools, not as lone characters. 
One would look for John the Baptist and 
Christ as the flower and fruitage of Is- 
rael's noblest thought, not as the marvel of 
her most barren period. In like manner 
one would look for Dante not at the begin- 
ning, but at the end of Italian literature; 
and for Shakespeare not as one of the 
founders, but as the consummate flower of 
English letters. 

The real evolutionary process of his- 
tory lies deep within the soul of man. It 
is religious; and because religious, it is so- 
cial. It is in this deep soul-growth, a growth 
in which the soul comes to possess ever 

270 



Sidnificance ot 5e0Ud for tbe flloDetn man 

more of ethical content, that the '' fulness 
of time " into which Christ came is to be 
found. 

2. The Emphasis of the Twentieth Century 

This deep historic evolution, or this " ful- 
ness of time " — whichever we choose to 
call it — will best be traced by asking and' 
answering a few simple questions: (i) 
What kind of God have we? One God. 
(2) What does God require of man? 
Righteousness. (3) What is righteous- 
ness? Right conduct. (4) What is right 
conduct? Service-conduct. (5) How shall 
service-conduct be attained ? Through faith 
in Christ. These questions and answers re- 
veal not only the historic progress of re- 
ligion, but also the place of religious em- 
phasis to-day. 

(i) What kind of God have we? 
Whether monotheism or polytheism was 
first held by man does not here concern us. 
The earliest history that we know — that of 
Egypt and Babylon — is saturated with poly- 
theism, and holds only the slightest hints 
of monotheism. And the Hebrews — ^the 
great monotheists — in the beginning of their 
history, were not altogether free from poly- 

271 



^be 3Bit)le fnedaage for (iloDern fnanbooD 

theism. But as history advanced polythe- 
ism disappeared from the faith of the He- 
brews, and the struggle between the mono- 
theism of the Hebrews and the polytheism 
of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia, became 
ever more strenuous, until in the early Chris- 
tian centuries the polytheism of the great 
nations about the Mediterranean, and north- 
ward in Europe, gave place to monotheism. 
For two thousand five hundred years, and 
possibly for five thousand years, had we the 
early data to inform us, the battle raged 
over the question, What kind of god have 
we? It is the question most fundamental 
to the right development of the race. The 
answer of advancing history is that there 
is one God, an answer, the whole import of 
which, as bearing on the unity of the race, 
we even yet do not fully realize. But, for 
the dominant nations of the earth, the battle 
is over. The question is settled. History 
will never reverse its decision. 

(2) What does God require of man? 
This was the question with which the He- 
brews, who first arrived at clearly defined 
monotheism, especially concerned them- 
selves. The unhesitating answer of their 
prophets and priests was that Jehovah, being 

2'J2 



Sidniffcance ot Hens tot tbe flQoDetn fiilan 

a holy God, required righteousness in his 
worshipers. The gods of the heathen were 
simply magnified men, with all the passions 
and lusts of men. They did not require 
their worshipers to be righteous. Indeed, 
some forms of heathen worship consisted 
in the grossest sensuality. Sacrifices were 
offered to appease the wrath of the gods 
and to purchase their favor. One of the 
hardest- fought battles of the prophets was 
to keep the Hebrew people from such idol- 
worship, and from ignoring Jehovah's de- 
mand for righteousness. Within Judaism 
the whole system of worship was a train- 
ing in righteousness. This was the mean- 
ing of sacred places, sacred days, sacred 
fasts and feasts; it was the meaning of the 
tabernacle, the temple, the holy place, and 
the holy of hoHes; and the meaning of 
sacrifices without blemish, not to mention 
purgings and washings innumerable. This 
prophetic conception of a righteous God de- 
manding righteousness in his worshipers 
not only passed over into Christianity, but 
Christ himself, who said, " Which of you 
convicteth me of sin?" has been and is for 
all Christian nations the pattern of that 
righteousness which God demands. 

s 273 



Zbc Bible OlceetiQc tot filoDem manbooO 

(3) What is righteousness? Is right- 
eousness ceremonial or ethical? compliance 
with right forms or right conduct? Over 
this question prophets and priests contended 
for centuries. The priests defended the 
altars and sacrifices. For them faithfulness 
to correct forms and ceremonies constituted 
righteousness. The prophets, on the other 
hand, regarded these only as helps to a 
righteousness that was ethical. Their con- 
stant demand was : " Wash you, make you 
clean ; put away the evil of your doings 
from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 
learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the 
oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for 
the widow" (Isa. 1:16). Typical, and 
also conclusive of the whole struggle be- 
tween prophets and priests, are the words 
of Samuel to Saul : " To obey is better than 
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of 
rams " (i Sam. 15: 22). 

But a thousand years after Samuel this 
struggle is seen still going on between 
Christ and the scribes and Pharisees. The 
latter had so perfected ceremonial right- 
eousness that one could scarcely sit or rise 
or stand or walk or eat without the danger 
of infringing its precepts. Such ceremo- 

274 



Siflniftcancc of ^eaus for tbc nilo&em filan 

nial righteousness Christ disregarded. His 
chief faults in the eyes of the ceremoniaHsts 
were that he did not wash before eating, 
comply with the rules of the Sabbath ob- 
servance, nor conform to their distinctions 
of clean and unclean. Christ, on the other 
hand, accused those who depended on cere- 
monial righteousness of tithing mint and 
anise and cummin and neglecting judgment, 
mercy, and faith. The strictest ceremo- 
niaHsts he called whited sepulchers, because 
they were robbers of widows and orphans. 

This struggle between ceremonial and 
ethical righteousness has perpetuated itself 
in the differences between Catholicism and 
Protestantism. The Catholic maintains that, 
whatever one's ethical character, in order 
to be acceptable to God, he must be the 
beneficiary of the ordinances and cere- 
monies of the Church; while the Protestant 
maintains that righteousness consists in be- 
ing right with God and man, and that all 
ceremonies are but helps to right character. 

A different phase of this same struggle 
is found within Protestantism itself. For 
centuries right belief was more esteemed 
than right conduct; and not those whose 
conduct was wrong, but those whose beliefs 

275 



tTbe JSible tilessage for fllo5cm ftlanboo5 

were rated wrong, were burned at the stake. 
Such, briefly indicated, is the most strenu- 
ous historic struggle of the past four thou- 
sand years. Century after century the con- 
clusion has been slowly forming that the 
righteousness which God requires of men 
is ethical. Upon this conclusion the fore- 
most nations of the world are agreed, and 
surely the answer is final. The world will 
never again believe that God is satisfied 
with ceremonies, theories, or faiths which 
do not bring repentance for sin or make 
men right in their conduct toward their 
fellows. In this refusal to believe in a re- 
ligion which does not secure righteousness 
lies the significance of the alienation of 
many from the church — ^many of the labor- 
ing classes, who look upon the church as a 
rich man's institution; and many writers of 
fiction, who put their villains in the church 
and picture their heroes turning away from 
it. The masses refuse longer to separate 
salvation from right living, and feel that in 
this they stand with Christ, who said, " By 
their fruits ye shall know them " (Matt. 
7:16). 

To recapitulate: What kind of god have 
we? One God. What does he require of 

276 



Significance ot 5e0U6 for tbe (lHoDctn flQan 

man? Righteousness? What is righteous- 
ness ? Right conduct. The progress of past 
thinking has moved straight on from one of 
these conclusions to the other. To be sure, 
the processes of thinking and the conclu- 
sions reached have not been so clearly de- 
fined as is suggested by the way they are 
put down here. Historic processes always 
overlap and intermingle. But conclusions 
arrived at through centuries of conflict, and 
which are the result of the most vital proc- 
esses of history, do not change. 

(4) What is right conduct? The strug- 
gle over this question seems only begun. Is 
selfishness or service to be the law of life? 
Is the badge of right manhood the seeking 
to save one's life, or the finding of ways to 
spend it? In a word. Is the self -giving 
typified by the cross of Christ the sign- 
manual of right conduct or not? At last 
the ethics of Jesus are on trial; and the 
deep soul-struggle which this trial involves 
is the most significant struggle of history. 
Over the ethics of Jesus men are now fight- 
ing the battle for which all previous battles 
have been fought. In this twentieth cen- 
tury men are shrinking from the price to be 
paid for right conduct. Manhood is in its 

^77 



Zbc Mbic message tor rtlo^ern nnanboo& 

Gethsemane, and is praying, " Father, if 
it be possible, let this cup pass from me." 

To be more specific, when a man in busi- 
ness refuses to stand for a reform which is 
necessary to the good of the people because 
to do so will injure his business, is his con- 
duct right or wrong? Precisely here — be- 
tween cost to one's self and service to one's 
fellows — is the severest conflict of our day. 

It will at once be perceived that this 
question. What is right conduct? not only 
probes the depths of every man's secret 
purposes, but has practical ramifications into 
all business, all politics, and all government. 
The right answer to this question, when ex- 
pressed in life, will be the setting up of the 
kingdom of God on earth. 

Jesus says that right conduct is service 
to one's fellows. In his great judgment 
parable he places in hell those who do not 
serve others. (Matt. 25:31-46.) Jesus 
places Dives in hell, not because he wronged 
or abused Lazarus, but because he did not 
serve him when in need. (Luke 16: 19-31.) 
In his parables of the Pounds and the 
Talents also, Jesus places in hell men whose 
only fault was that they were not faithful 
in ministry. (Luke 19: 11-27; Matt. 25: 14- 

278 



Significance of Jcsm fot tbe moDetn fnian 

30.) Jesus makes love to men inseparable 
from love to God, and points to the Samar- 
itan ministering to the man who fell among 
thieves on the Jericho road, as giving 
proper expression to that love. 

It is only placing the emphasis where it 
belongs and where Christ himself placed it, 
to say that the significance of Jesus for the 
modern man lies in the ethics of Jesus. 
Such an emphasis the strictest theologian 
need not fear. Indeed, the one who ad- 
dresses himself adequately to the living of 
a Christlike life by paying what it costs 
to do so will find Jesus more human and 
more divine, more power-filled and power- 
giving, than the theologians have ever made 
him. Our age simply refuses to believe in 
a Christianity which does not advance from 
theories of Christ's person to the practice 
of Christ's principles. 

Each century gives to Christianity its 
own peculiar point of contact with life, de- 
velops its own heroic situations, erects its 
own crosses, and makes its own demands 
for self-surrender and self-giving; but the 
principle of the cross runs through all cen- 
turies, and is never for a moment abrogated ; 
and the place of the cross for the Chris- 

279 



XLbc Mtlc !XlcB6tiQc for flloDern manbood 

tian of the twentieth century is in the prac- 
tice of the ethics of Jesus. Apart from 
this there is no cross left worthy the effort 
of a man, no cross left which tasks his 
soul and calls for heroism, no cross left be- 
fore which a man will sweat blood and be- 
come bigger and braver and more Christ- 
like than those who lived before him. In 
our age it requires no heroism to proclaim 
whatever theology one pleases, for thought 
and speech are untrammeled. Indeed, 
theories and theologies, which in the past 
tried men's souls and kindled fires under 
their feet, are matters of indifference to- 
day, even to Christians. However ortho- 
dox we may be, we cannot live by ortho- 
doxy, for it no longer calls for heroism and 
sacrifice. Christian men must go forward 
and grapple with the task of their own cen- 
tury. They must be genuine brothers to 
their fellows, and give the service of their 
lives to redeem men from everything that 
is contrary to the mind of God, whether in 
life or environment. Unless Christians will 
do this, Christianity can but be turned back 
upon itself to droop and die. It must grow 
to live. And it must grow by setting for 
itself a task adequate to its growing man- 

280 



significance ot Jcme for tbe flloOecn fiilan 

hood. A Christianity without heroism is 
without vitaHty; and a Christianity that 
shirks the crucifixion which its age im- 
poses upon it is shorn of power. 

What then is right conduct? Service- 
conduct, conduct which makes every man 
a beneficent minister to his fellows. This 
shall be the answer of the growing cen- 
turies, for " the world is going Jesus' way." 

(5) The last question in the historic 
series is, how shall service-conduct be at- 
tained? For the practice of Christ's ethics, 
do men need Christ as a divine power in 
their lives? or can they fulfil the claims of 
God without the divine Christ as a trans- 
forming and enabling power ? To this ques- 
tion there are different answers both within 
and without the church. 

a. Outside of the church the masses of 
laboring men, for example, whose lives are 
made bitter by Christians who coin un- 
warranted profits out of their overwork, be- 
lieve in the ethics of Jesus — his brotherli- 
ness, sympathy, hopefulness, and love. But 
when they see that the ethics of Jesus are 
not practised by those who hold the tradi- 
tional faith of Jesus, the faith and the ethics 
become separated the one from the other in 

281 



Zbc Mblc mcasaQc tor {llo&crn nianboo& 

their minds; and while they continue to be- 
Heve in the ethics of Jesus, they cease to 
believe in Jesus himself as the Saviour of 
men. Whatever theologians may say, think- 
ing men cannot be expected to believe in 
Christ's power to save men hereafter unless 
he has power mightily to change them here. 
The oppressed laboring man has been 
cited simply as an illustration for the sake 
of definiteness. To-day men judge the 
power of Christ by the conduct of Chris- 
tians. Never was this judgment rendered 
so relentlessly. And the immediate danger 
of our century is that men come to ex- 
pect the fruit of Christliness without plant- 
ing the tree ; to drink from a stream of liv- 
ing water where there is no fountain; to 
have the ability to practise Christ's ethics 
without the power of Christ in their lives. 
Historically faith in Christ as divine Sa- 
viour and Master has been the seed from 
which the ethical tree grew, the fountain 
whence the ethical stream flowed. But 
whether this relation is real and necessary, 
is speedily becoming the crucial question 
of our age. It will not be answered theo- 
retically by theologians, much less by critics, 
but practically by the doers of Christ's will. 

282 



Sidttificance ot 5e0Ud tot tbe modetn Hilan 

b. Within the church many are asking 
whether the traditional .faith in Christ is 
necessary to reproduce Christ's ethics. 
Some already incline to answer this ques- 
tion in the negative. The general consen- 
sus of Christian conviction has departed 
from the postulate of medieval and post- 
medieval theology, that correct belief in 
Christ as Saviour will save the soul. Since 
the days of Baur and Strauss the whole 
orthodox scheme of Christianity and the 
traditional view of Christ himself have been 
questioned; yet none of the questioners 
would abate one whit the requirements of 
Christ's ethics. The indifference of prac- 
tically all Christians to doctrine, the draw- 
ing together of different denominations on 
the basis of essentials, the cooperation of 
Christians of every name in practical work, 
point in the same direction — to the grow- 
ing conviction that traditional beliefs are of 
minor importance, and that living and work- 
ing like Christ are of supreme importance. 
The whole drift of thought and conviction 
within the church is toward increasing em- 
phasis upon Christ's ethics, and refusal to 
believe in the genuineness of the Christian 
life that does not practise them. 

283 



tlbe BllJle tJRcBsnQc tot filo&ctn filanbooO 

But this is as yet only a drift, an in- 
creasing emphasis. The supreme task is 
coming on and is growing ever more ap- 
parent. It is a task pecuHar to our century, 
involving a work of theological reconstruc- 
tion which shall adequately relate Christ to 
life, and of practical living which shall ade- 
quately express Christ in life. It is the 
Christ lifted up by being reproduced in his 
followers that must command the faith and 
hold the love of the changing world. 

Many to-day are unnecessarily alarmed 
over biblical criticism and the challenging 
of orthodoxy. The one final answer to all 
criticism and infidelity is the power of Jesus 
Christ at work changing a sinner into a 
saint, a selfish man into a servant, an op- 
pressor into a helper, a worldling into a 
worshiper, an exploiter of men into a re- 
deemer of men, a self-indulgent man into 
a man who goes to his Gethsemane and his 
cross as these confront him in daily life. 

J. The Old and the New 

Every thoughtful man not only respects, 
but reverences those who have wrought so 
well in the past. It neither indicates a right 
view of history nor manifests a spirit of 

284 



Significance ot Seem for tbc flUoDetn taian 

justice toward one's own generation to bring 
a railing accusation against the theology of 
the past or the ethics of the present. It 
is the farthest from the mind of the writer 
to do either. His aim, on the other hand, 
is to indicate in historic sequence the great 
soul-battles of the centuries as history re- 
cords them, and to point out the fact that 
we are now in the midst of a moral conflict 
which requires heroes, and which, under 
God, will bring victory to the right, as all 
previous soul-battles have done. 

In this historic view it becomes evident 
how necessary have been the theological con- 
flicts of the past, conflicts which must needs 
have been waged before others could come 
on. All honor to the men who were heroes 
in past struggles, fighting on whatever side, 
so long as they wielded valiant swords with 
good consciences. The views of Christ's 
person and work held by them were neces- 
sary to their day, as they are also necessary 
to our day as a basis for any more adequate 
view that may be formed by the present or 
future generations. 

Both the theological attitude and the 
ethics of our day are the best that history 
has recorded. While there are those within 

285 



tbc :ffilblc ftlesgaac for tllobcrn ttlanboo5 

the church who are stereotyped in fixed 
philosophies of salvation, as were the Phar- 
isees in their forms and ceremonies, there 
are also those — and they constitute the 
majority of Christian people — who are as 
receptive of and as responsive to the grow- 
ing truth of our age as were the disciples 
to the teachings of Christ. And while 
there are those in the church who do not 
exemplify in their lives the ethics of Jesus, 
but hang their souls on a theory of salva- 
tion, there are others — and they also con- 
stitute the great majority — who do not look 
for salvation apart from the practice of the 
ethics of Jesus, which they regard as evi- 
dence of their union with and love for the 
Redeemer. They take Christ simply and 
seriously. Their hope of salvation is not 
in a theory to be held, but in a power to be 
experienced; not in a theology to be ex- 
plained, but in a life to be lived; not in a 
ceremony to be performed, but in a love 
which warms the heart, quickens spiritual 
circulation, and gives prompt reaction to 
moral muscle. 

Such facts and tendencies point to and 
demand a new interpretation of Christ for 
the modern mind, an interpretation in keep- 

286 



Signittcance ot 5edU5 tot tbe niodecn (Dan 

ing with the historic advancement already 
made — advancement both in theological 
knowledge and Christian conduct. An in- 
terpretation of the Christ is needed to-day 
that will give to Christ's ethics a more cen- 
tral and vital place in the whole process 
of salvation; an interpretation that will 
shame the man who calls Christ " Lord, 
Lord," and does not do the things that 
Christ says ; an interpretation that will hold 
up to the scorn of all thinking men the one 
who hopes to enjoy the kingdom of Christ 
in glory, but does not glorify Christ by 
setting up his kingdom here ; an interpreta- 
tion that will stamp as a coward and a 
craven one who has the effrontery to trust 
in a crucified Redeemer for his own sal- 
vation, while refusing his own crucifixion 
for the redemption of his fellows ; an inter- 
pretation that will bring the blush to any 
man who presumes to rejoice that he, a lost 
man, has been found, while indifferent to 
the fact that his fellows are still lost and 
perishing; an interpretation that will brand 
as with the condemnation of God every man 
who accepts for his own benefit the self- 
giving Christ while oppressing in any form 
or manner his weaker brother. 

287 



ttbc y^iblc flleeeade tor modern manbcoD 

What such an interpretation will be as a 
theology it is vain to prophesy. It will be 
in keeping with the life and teachings of 
Jesus; it will be true to the principles 
enunciated by the apostles; it will be con- 
sonant with the unfolding of Christian truth 
in history; it will hold the person, Jesus 
Christ, at its very heart as the power of 
God for the transformation of individuals 
and society; it will deal little with theory 
and much with life; it will endeavor to set 
up the kingdom of Christ on earth by de- 
manding the ethics of Christ from every one 
who accepts him — a demand calling for a 
self -surrender the most complete, the most 
difficult, and the most costly that any cen- 
tury has ever demanded, the days of the 
martyrs not excepted. 

Were progress in Christian ethics not de- 
manded by our century, such heroic sur- 
render is imperative in order to vitalize 
Christianity itself. The churches are com- 
plaining that Christians do not pray, do 
not read the Bible, do not attend public 
services as once they did — all of which is 
true. But one, to offer more than per- 
functory prayer, must feel a need; a soul, 
to feed on God's word, must be hungry; 

288 



Sianiticance ot ^ce\x6 for tbe modern fHan 

men, to seek places of encouragement, cheer, 
and invigoration, must feel too weak for 
their tasks. He who will actually under- 
take to live as Christ requires him to live, 
will be driven to prayer, driven to the Bible, 
driven to every place of cheer and help that 
he can find, for he undertakes a task that 
will often make him sweat blood, and often 
nail him to a cross. But no less a task con- 
stitutes the significance of Jesus for the 
modern man. 

It is vain to inveigh against the trans- 
itional state of theology in which we find 
ourselves. This is but the religious phase 
of a transition that is not only world-wide, 
but involves all subjects — the transition 
from philosophy to science. For centuries 
the great minds of the world dealt with 
philosophy. The method of deductive phi- 
losophy — and inductive philosophy never 
wholly escaped the deductive method — was 
to lay down a hypothesis and arrange the 
facts consistently with it. The explanation 
was assumed in the hypothesis, which the 
facts were arranged to prove. To-day prac- 
tically all philosophers have turned scien- 
tists. Men are busy digging up the facts. 
If an explanation appears in the midst 

T 289 



Zbc :fiSible Olcesmc toe tllodecn manbooD 

of the facts, well; but if not, the explanation 
can wait. Men believe in and live by the 
facts. 

Theology is religious philosophy. And 
theological thought, like all philosophical 
thought, has shifted its attention from 
theory to fact. What are the facts about 
Christ — the events of his life, the truth that 
he taught, the appeal that he made to man, 
the power that he has to change the one 
who responds to his appeal? What are the 
facts about the Christian life — the possi- 
bility of conversion, the conditions of the 
change, the requirements of converts, and 
the possibility of meeting the requirements? 
Such are the questions that interest the 
rank and file to-day. Men are not interested 
in philosophical theology, much less in spec- 
ulative criticism. The people as well as the 
philosophers have turned scientists. They 
want the facts. And this is their protec- 
tion against speculation, both old and new. 
This passion for facts is big with promise 
for Christianity. Christ's teaching was that 
men should face the facts, believe the facts, 
live by the facts. He called men to himself, 
not that they might explain him, but that 
they might know his power in their lives. 

290 



Significance of 3esu5 tot tbe ftloDetn ttlan 

One of the most certain facts about Christ 
is the special significance of his death — a 
fact central in prophetic utterance, as evi- 
denced by the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah; 
central in the teaching of Christ; central in 
the preaching of the apostles; central to 
whatever form of Christian faith has re- 
newed and vitalized sinful men ; and central 
in the missionary work of the world to-day. 

Christ claimed to be the Son of God 
and to give his life to redeem men. He 
did suffer the just for the unjust, and by 
doing so gave the highest, most appealing, 
and most powerful expression to a principle 
which we meet everywhere in life, and with- 
out which this would be a red-handed, tooth- 
and-claw world. When any one, without 
any philosophy of these facts, believes them, 
allows himself to be appealed to by them, 
and responds to the appeal, a new-born love 
enters his soul, and he is changed, for the 
mightiest transforming force that can lay 
hold upon a man's soul is the knowledge 
that one who loves him is suffering un- 
justly on his behalf. 

The more thorough-going, therefore, be 
the transition from philosophy to science, 
from theory to fact, the more Christian will 

291 



dbe Mblc mcee&QC tot modetn {llanbood 

the world become. As yet we are only in 
the kindergarten of science, for as yet our 
science deals for the most part with the 
physical, whereas most of our life has to 
do with the mental and spiritual. The more 
thoroughly and truly scientific we become 
the more fully shall we face, accept, and 
live by the simple facts of Jesus Christ as 
they appear in his person and in his work 
for the redemption of men, and the more 
fully shall we accept the responsibilities 
which those facts entail. 



292 



ffiibUoQrapb? 



The literature of the subjects discussed in this 
volume is so large that to give a complete bibliog- 
raphy would be out of the question. The follow- 
ing works may be mentioned, however, as among 
those which have been helpful to the author in 
his studies. 

I. Criticism 

John Skinner. Genesis : A Critical and Exe- 
getical Commentary. New York, 1910, 

J. E. McFadyen. Old Testament Criticism and 
the Christian Church. New York, 1903. 

Sir Robert Anderson. The Bible and Modern 
Criticism. New York, Chicago, Toronto, 1903. 

G. A. Smith. Modern Criticism and the Preach- 
ing of the Old Testament. New York, 1901. 

James Orr. The Problem of the Old Testa- 
ment. New York, 1907. 

A. T. Clay. Light on the Old Testament from 
Babel. Third edition. Philadelphia, 1907. 

N. Schmidt. The Prophet of Nazareth. New 
York, 1907. 

S. R. Driver. Introduction to the Literature of 
the Old Testament. Tenth edition. New York, 
1900. 

S. R. Driver. Modern Research as Illustrating 
the Bible. London, 1909. 

293 



3Btbliostapb« 

Marcus Dods. The Bible, its Origin and Na- 
ture. New York, 1905. 

W. Sanday. The Life of Christ in Recent Re- 
search. New York, 1908. 

II. History 

A. P. Stanley. History of the Jewish Church. 
New edition. Three volumes. New York, 1893. 

C. F. Kent. A History of the Hebrew People : 
The United Kingdom. Eighth edition. New 
York, 1901. 

C. F. Kent. A History of the Hebrew People: 
The Divided Kingdom. Seventh edition. New 
York, 1899. 

C. F. Kent. A History of the Jewish People: 
The Babylonian, Persian, and Greek Periods. 
Fourth edition. New York, 1901. 

J. S. Riggs. A History of the Jewish People: 
The Maccabean and Roman Periods, New York, 
1900. 

G. T. Purves. Christianity in the Apostolic 
Age. New York, 1901. 

J. H. Breasted. A History of the Ancient 
Egyptians. New York, 1908. 

G. S. Goodspeed. A History of the Babylo- 
nians and Assyrians. New York, 1902. 

E. A. W. Budge. A History of Egypt: In the 
Neolithic and Archaic Periods. New York, 1902. 

D. R. Breed. A History of the Preparation of 
the World for Christ. Second edition. New 
York, Chicago, Toronto, 1893. 

Shailer Mathews. A History of New Testa- 
ment Times, New York, 1899. 

294 



W. Sanday. Outlines of the Life of Christ. 
New York, 1906. 

Rush Rhees. The Life of Jesus of Nazareth. 
New York, 1901. 

G. A, Smith. The Historical Geography of the 
Holy Land. Thirteenth edition. New York, 1907. 

III. Archeology 

Lyman Abbott. The Life and Literature of the 
Ancient Hebrews. Boston and New York, 1901. 

A. Guyot. Creation. New York, 1893. 

Karl Marti. The Religion of the Old Testa- 
ment. London and New York, 1907. Translated 
into English by G. A. Bienemann. Edited by 
W. D. Morrison, 

S. G. Smith. Religion in the Making. New 
York, 1910. 

H. G. Tompkins. The Life and Times of 
Joseph. London, 1891. 

J. D. Davis. Genesis and the Semitic Tradi- 
tions. New York, 1894. 

Ira M. Price. The Monuments and the Old 
Testament. Chicago, 1902. 

James Robertson. Early Religions of Israel. 
Two volumes. New York, 1901. 

IV. Works Bearing on the Old Testament 

Marcus Dods. Genesis. New York, 1887-1888. 

C. F. Kent. Heroes and Crises of Early He- 
brew History. New York, 1908. 

C. F. Kent. Founders and Rulers of United 
Israel. New York, 1908. 

295 



C. F. Kent. The Kings and Prophets of Israel 
and Judah. New York, 1909. 

G. Rawlinson. Exodus. Third edition. New 
York and London. 

D. W. Faunce. Inspiration as a Trend. Phila- 
delphia, 1896. 

G. A. Smith. The Book of the Twelve 
Prophets. Two volumes. New York, 1906. 

S. R. Driver. Isaiah, his Life and Times. New 
York. 

F. W. Farrar. The Minor Prophets. New 
York. 

A. F. Kirkpatrick. The Doctrine of the 
Prophets. London and New York, 1892. 

G. S. Goodspeed. Israel's Messianic Hope. 
New York and London, 1900. 

V. Works on the Life, Teachings, and Influ- 
ence OF Christ 

N. D. Hillis. The Influence of Christ in Mod- 
ern Life. New York, 1900. 

Phillips Brooks. The Influence of Jesus. New 
York, 1894. 

A. Edersheim. The Life and Times of Jesus 
the Messiah. Fifth edition. New York and Lon- 
don, 1883. 

M. G. Campbell. The Crises of the Christ. 
Third edition. New York, 1903. 

H. E. Robins. The Ethics of the Christian Life. 
Philadelphia, 1904. 

A. Harnack. What is Christianity? Second 
edition. New York and London, 1906. Trans- 
lated into English by F. B. Saunders. 

296 



Shailer Mathews. The Messianic Hope in the 
New Testament. Chicago, 1905. 

A. M. Fairbairn. Studies in the Life of Christ. 
New York, 1908. 

H. H. Wendt. The Teachings of Jesus. New 
York, 1896. Translated into English by John 
Wilson. 

A. M. Fairbairn. The Place of Christ in Mod- 
ern Thought. New York, 1903. 

James Denney. The Death of Christ. Fifth 
edition. New York, 1907. 

A. B. Bruce. The Kingdom of God. Sixth edi- 
tion. New York. 

Shailer Mathews. The Social Teachings of 
Jesus. New York, 1902. 

G. B. Stevens. The Teachings of Jesus. New 
York, 1909. 

R. E. Speer. The Principles of Jesus. New 
York, Chicago, Toronto, 1902. 

J. A. Leighton. Jesus Christ and the Civiliza- 
tion of To-day. New York, 1907. 

F. G. Peabody. Jesus Christ and the Christian 
Character. New York, 1905. 

F. G. Peabody. Jesus Christ and the Social 
Question. New York, 1901. 

Shailer Mathews. The Gospel and the Modern 
Man. New YoTk, 19 10. 

VI. Theology 

W. N. Clarke. An Outline of Christian The- 
ology. New York. 

Lyman Abbott. The Theology of an Evolution- 
ist. Boston and New York, 1898. 

297 



aBlbliograpbs 

A. Sabatier. Religions of Authority. New 
York, 1901. 

W. N. Clarke. The Use of the Scriptures in 
Theology. New York, 1905. 

H. C. King. Reconstruction in Theology. New 
York, 1901. 

A. B. Davidson. The Theology of the Old 
Testament. New York, 1904, 

E. P. Gould. The Biblical Theology of the 
New Testament. New York and London, 1901. 

G. B. Stevens. The Theology of the New Tes- 
tament. New York, 1899. 

VII. Works on Related Subjects 

D. S. Cairns. Christianity in the Modem 
World. New York and London. 

G. P. Fisher. The Supernatural Origin of 
Christianity. New York, 1887. 

Lyman Abbott. The Evolution of Christianity. 
Boston and New York, 1900. 

James Orr. The Christian View of God and 
the World. Ninth edition. New York, 1908. 

G. Macdonald. The Religious Sense in its 
Scientific Aspect. New York and London, 1903. 

Shailer Mathews. The Church and the Chan- 
ging Order. New York, 1907. 

R. S. Storrs. The Divine Origin of Chris- 
tianity Indicated by its Historical Effects. New 
York, 1884. 

W. R. Harper. Religion and the Higher Life. 
Chicago, 1904. 

C. E. Jefferson. Things Fundamental. New 
York, 1903. 

298 



P. C. Simpson. The Fact of Christ. New 
York, Chicago, Toronto, 1900. 

F. G, Peabody. The Religion of an Educated 
Man. New York, 1903. 

W. N. Rice. Christian Faith in an Age of 
Science. New York, 1903. 

G. A. Gordon. Ultimate Conceptions of Faith. 
Boston and New York, 1903. 

J. H. Mcllvane. The Wisdom of the Holy 
Scriptures. New York, 1883. 

G. P. Fisher. History of Christian Doctrine. 
New York, 1899. 

John Grier Hibben. The Problems of Philoso- 
phy. New York, 1909. 



299 



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